2. The New Era: Fight Against Poverty Has Widespread Ramifications

This new era of poverty alleviation highlights CPC's ruling motto, as well as its political and institutional advantages. A large number of Party members have gone to the communities to mobilize the masses, and followed a new concept of targeted poverty alleviation to take a down-to-earth approach in their work to raise the poor from poverty through pragmatic actions to satisfy their basic needs – a telling evidence of their upholding the Party's underlying motto of wholeheartedly serving the people, which will definitely improve the Party's engagement and its bond with the ordinary people, thus solidifying the CPC's ruling foundation.

The indigenous impetus of the impoverished areas and people is stimulated. The indigenous impetus of the residents in impoverished areas has been proved to be the basis for establishing long-term, effective mechanisms for poverty alleviation. Galvanizing this impetus into action is the foundation for helping the rural poor get rid of poverty and is a global challenge for tackling poverty. Some Party members, however, often complain that people just "wait for, rely on, and beg" the government for poverty relief, in the mistaken belief that the rural poor are to blame for their misery – a proof of the former's failure to observe the Party's fundamental purpose of wholeheartedly serving the people. One of the overarching principles of President Xi Jinping's poverty alleviation ideas is that we must help people increase confidence in their own ability to lift themselves out of poverty through education improvement, publicity campaigns, policy incentives, prime examples, and village regulations and agreements among the residents, in order to harness the poor's enthusiasm and initiative so that they can gain a sense of control and satisfaction through continued engagement, eventually changing their outmoded attitudes.

A large number of Party officials and talents are cultivated. One of the best ways of training officials is for them to personally work with the residents in poverty alleviation programs in impoverished villages. Requiring the implementation of all kinds of measures, poverty reduction provides a concrete means to cultivate talent. Serving as first secretaries of Party committees in poor villages offers an excellent opportunity for young officials to really accomplish something with limited resources,while giving them unique, valuable experiences in forming their views on life and the world, as well as their values. By combining the training of officials with fight against poverty, we can send people with talent to remote poor areas. And years later, these members of high caliber will develop close affinity with rural areas, understand rural affairs, and have a close bond with the farmers, and therefore will become a backbone of managing the country. Manifesting the core values of poverty reduction, these experienced officials will be the living treasures of our Party.

An enabling social atmosphere is shaped. Practice shows that poverty alleviation is an important medium for forming the whole society's atmosphere in favor of poverty alleviation, cultivation of socialist core values, and creation of a more favorable atmosphere for development. Through collaboration on poverty alleviation between the eastern and western regions, the former will enjoy more development opportunities in promoting the socialist values of realizing common prosperity while helping the latter eradicate poverty. Targeted poverty alleviation policies by organs of the central government not only inject funds into impoverished counties, bring along new concepts and ideas, come up with new technologies, and create new markets, but also build an important platform and channel for the officials of units of the central government to have a close look at the villages, strengthen the bond between the officials and the people, and gain the opportunities to train subordinates. Moreover, extensive involvement of the private sector, social organizations, and individual citizens in poverty alleviation is likely to arouse people's inner desire to help the poor while advancing a harmonious society along the way.