4. The International Community Highly Praises China's Poverty Alleviation Achievements

Helen Clark, former United Nations Development Program Administrator, said, "The movement of people in China out of extreme poverty is the greatest, quickest movement that history has ever known!" "China stands a hero of the world's poverty-reduction efforts," commented by the UK edition of The Economist . In March, 2013, an article titled What Does China's Success in Poverty Reduction Mean to the World? authored by José Graziano da Silva, then Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), wrote, "China's efforts are the biggest factor in reducing the number of people suffering from poverty and hunger worldwide." Rohland, the World Bank's Country Director for China, said, "China has achieved more in poverty reduction than any other country." "From a historical perspective, it is an unprecedented achievement. China's poverty reduction has contributed to the world's poverty alleviation efforts. Without China's poverty alleviation achievements, the UN Millennium Development Goals would have been impossible to realize," he added. Theo Sommer, former editor of Die Zeit and an expert on international affairs, admiringly said, "In just over 30 years, China has transformed itself into a country with a strong development momentum, which is unprecedented in human history."

Why does China, once one of the poorest and least developed countries, manage to make remarkable achievements in poverty reduction? Ronnie Lins, director of the Center China-Brazil, believes that "the Communist Party of China always puts people's benefits first. They know what the people really need, and formulate correct policies beneficial to the people accordingly." "China's experiences in poverty alleviation provide valuable lessons to other middle income countries," said Kim Yong, president of the World Bank, at the opening press conference for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

An article on The People's Daily authored by José Reinaldo Carvalho, Secretary of Politics and International Relations of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), wrote, "China has become the world's second largest economy with a huge consumer market, thriving industrial development, and huge potential in production. The country enjoys enduring prosperity and the people live and work in contentment. Everything is attributable to CPC's leadership and socialism."

"The hardworking of the Chinese people is the key to success in poverty reduction. In the pivotal phase of poverty alleviation, 'transfusion' (of funds) is important, but it will only bring temporary, not long-term, changes. From a long-term perspective, to completely change the landscape of poverty-stricken areas, the locals must be encouraged to tap their indigenous impetus to release more potential and vitality," said Xu Haoliang, Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and Pacific at the United Nations Development Programme.

"In the process of poverty reduction, it is difficult to fundamentally solve the long-term problems only by allocating funds to poverty-relief projects. China should take initiative to relieve poverty, mobilize social forces, rely on the workforce to change the status quo, and manifest the spirit of actively tackling difficulties and moving on to all-out efforts in poverty reduction, in order to effectively prevent the transfer of poverty across generations," said Mnier, a researcher at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), a think tank in Pakistan, at an interview with The People's Daily .

Vinogradov, director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said, "China is a vast country with a large population and some barren rural backwaters of backward culture where it is apparently hard to eradicate poverty. The targeted poverty reduction measures that have been put forward identify and reach the poor more accurately. Governments at every level have signed letters of commitment on poverty alleviation and a level-by-level inspection and supervision mechanism is in place to enforce accountability. This performance review system clarifies responsibilities at different levels of governance and therefore is conducive to poverty alleviation."

"We must make a firm commitment, determine targeted areas and population, and work extremely hard, with a strong determination to win the fight against poverty to ensure that by 2020 all the impoverished rural population will welcome the arrival of a moderately prosperous society with the rest of the nation," a declaration duly showing that our Party has never forgotten its founding mission, determined to guarantee and enhance the basic rights of all the Chinese people and to put up a heroic fight to lift over 40 million residents out of extreme poverty in the three years ahead. In his message for the 2017 Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum, UN Secretary-General António Guterres highly recognized China's achievements in targeted poverty alleviation by saying, "Targeted poverty reduction strategies are the only way to reach those farthest behind and achieve the ambitious targets set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, and its experiences can provide valuable lessons to other developing countries."

China's fight against poverty not only vividly demonstrates our confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, but also adds an admiring touch to the global anti-poverty cause.