China became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society after the Opium Wars in 1840. At that time, people suffering from poverty and harboring expectations for a better life often greeted each other with “Have you eaten yet?”, which has lasted until today. It attests to the hard life of hundreds of millions in the previious era when they could not enjoy even basic living standards.

After 40 years of reform and opening up, the Chinese are using different expressions in greetings such as “you’ve gained weight” or “you look thinner than before”. The changes show that basic living standards have been met and the focus is on improving the quality of life.

A Chinese proverb says that a well cannot be dug by a single shovel, which is similar to the Western one “Rome was not built in a day”. I was born in Harbin, Northeast China, in 1961. My mother often told me that she could not afford to eat eggs or drink milk when she was pregnant. In the 1970s, my parents, who were railway engineers sent 15 yuan ($2.1) to my paternal and maternal grandparents respectively every month from their salary which was 56 yuan ($7.9) each, because rural life was even harder.

The close relations between urban and rural households are typical of a traditional agricultural society and show benevolence highlighted in Confucianism. Such a fine tradition has made the Chinese people diligent, patient and optimistic.

China ushered in a historic turning point in 1978 when the late leader Deng Xiaoping initiated reform and opening up. Since the college entrance examination system abolished during the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) was restored in 1978, I got a change to be admitted to a key middle school in Heilongjiang Province. All I thought about then was working hard to enter college. The Japanese feature film Manhunt became a hit in China in the same year, which surprised people the scenes of skyscrapers in Tokyo and traffic flows. Opening up became a common aspiration in China.

I could not imagine owning a car or traveling to Tokyo at that time. Since China implemented a planned economic system, most daily necessities in limited volumes could only be purchased through coupons. My family or four lived in a 12-square-meter room, in which the major home appliances were a sewing machine and a radio.

Deng is known as the chief architect of China’s reform and opening up. Around 40 years ago, he made bold and thrilling proposals including “Socialism does not necessarily mean poverty”, “Development is the top priority” and “Let some people get rich first”.

In 1987, the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that “China is still and will long remain in the primary stage of socialism.” As the key part of Deng Xiaoping Theory, it laid the theoretical foundation for reform and opening up and unified the thoughts and action of the CPC. The theory promoted the establishment of a socialist market economic system with Chinese characteristics and provided a solid institutional and industrial guarantee for achieving the goal of alleviating poverty and building a moderately prosperous society by 2020.

In November 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed “targeted poverty alleviation” to make China’s extensive poverty alleviation work better defined. Xi has gone to China’s rural areas to instruct on poverty reduction many times every year and developed evaluation standards for local officials’ work, stressing on long-lasting and practical efforts. In light of this, China’s remarkable progress in poverty alleviation has not been achieved by accident.

Reform and opening up has helped 740 million Chinese people shake off poverty, reducing the poverty rate by 94 percent. As of 2019, the number of people suffering from extreme poverty in China had fallen to 5.5 million, accounting for only 0.4 percent of the total population of 1.4 billion. China became the first developing country to achieve the poverty reduction goal of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

“China has lifted over 800 million people out of poverty, which is the greatest poverty reduction feat in history,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said while visiting during the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 2019.

From the beginning of this year, the emergence of the novel coronavirus pandemic has led to a severe global economic recession and affected the Chinese economy in an unprecedented manner. However, the Chinese government has confronted the difficulties and aims to achieve the priority goal of eradicating absolute poverty this year by supporting 5.5 million of its people.

China has made remarkable achievements in combating poverty. In February 2017, Guterres lauded China in a speech at the Munich Security Conference saying it “has become the country making the greatest contribution to global poverty alleviation.” China’s achievements on poverty reduction can be attributed to the following efforts:

First, the reform and opening-up policy played a key role in poverty reduction. China’s poverty reduction has been in line with the progress of the policy over the past 40 years, which has expanded from coastal areas and large cities to underdeveloped areas in the central and western regions, rural areas and third-and fourth-tier cities. The gradual expansion has made it possible for China to complete the goal of targeted poverty alleviation this year and help people suffering from absolute poverty lead a more prosperous life.

Second, the government has developed feasible policies and mechanisms. It has introduced “Five-Year Plans” covering goals on poverty reduction and established the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development with Vice Premier Wang Yang as its head. China’s provincial, municipal, county and township administrative departments all have officials working on poverty alleviation.

Third, the central government has set aside a large amount of funds for poverty alleviation in budgets every year.

Fourth, China’s Constitution stipulates that the country adopt a unified system, which allows the government to launch policies nationwide and provide strength and experience for effective implementation of poverty reduction measures.

Fifth, it has settled on eight key areas for poverty alleviation: infrastructure, relocation, education, sanitary improvement, financial support, industrial development, tourism and the internet. The major fields in line with China’s national conditions and characteristics have been integrated with new economic revolutions such as the booming digital economy, which have driven poverty reduction through technologies. In the second half of 2013, Xi proposed the Belt and Road Initiative which provides new opportunities for international cooperation in poverty reduction. The initiative has been progressing smoothly worldwide and driving cooperation between China and countries along the route, helping local people get employment, and cleaner drinking water, and allowing more children to receive education.

I went to Tajikistan in 1995 during its civil war. Before going there, a local friend asked me to buy a bag of flour and sugar. When arriving in Dushanbe, the capital, I learned that its per capita income was only $5 at the time and understood what poverty meant.

Peace and development should be the eternal theme of the international community and international poverty reduction cooperation needs to be strengthened.

The expectation of building a fair society and shaking off poverty is shared by people around the world, which is one of the signs of the progress of human civilization. The world wars in the 20th century and civil wars in many countries have made people realize the importance of peace and development.

The UN MDGs and Post-2015 Agenda have listed eradicating poverty and famine as the world’s primary goal and top agenda.

There is a long way to go for global poverty reduction. As long as the governments and people of all countries work jointly, international poverty alleviation will see greater achievements.

The author is former deputy editor-in-chief of Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po and researcher with China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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