China has formalized "total victory" in the elimination of extreme poverty.
During the ceremony held in the Great Hall of the People, President
Xi Jinping
, by closing the campaign that began 8 years ago with his rise to power, marked the central role played by the Chinese Communist Party in fighting "to improve the well-being of the people" and having the fight against poverty as "its original mission".
China has spent 1.6 trillion yuan ($ 246 billion) on the ad hoc campaign since the 18th CCP congress, pulling over 10 million people out of poverty a year, up to a total of 98.99 million.
The 128,000 villages and 832 counties, officially registered as being in extreme difficulty, have all been removed from the list of poverty.
Overall, in 40 years, starting with the reforms and opening up the country to the outside world, "over 770 million people have been driven out of poverty", contributing more than 70% to the reduction of the phenomenon on a global scale, always in the same period, even anticipating the 2030 target of the UN plan by 10 years.
With these goals achieved, China has created another "miracle" that "will go down in history", Xi added emphatically, noting the political advantages and effectiveness of the socialist model that allow it to put together the resources necessary to achieve an ambitious goal: only by forming "a common will and joint action" the indispensable requisites are created to overcome poverty.
Its elimination "in rural areas is a fundamental contribution to achieving the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects," the president said.
The country, he noted, has created a "Chinese example" and has made a huge contribution to global efforts on the complex matter.
Beijing state media framed the result as an early gift for the CCP's upcoming 100th anniversary, which is celebrated this year.
The People's Daily, his official voice, published a two-page comment in which he praised the "historic leap" to bend extreme poverty under Xi's leadership.
China defines extreme rural poverty as a per capita income of less than 4,000 yuan ($ 620) per year, or $ 1.52 per day, compared to the global threshold defined by the World Bank of $ 1.90 per day.
