By He Yin, People’s Daily
Eradicating poverty has long been a shared aspiration of humanity and remains one of the most formidable challenges to global development. Learning from poverty reduction efforts, building international consensus, deepening practical multilateral cooperation, and advancing the global fight against poverty are shared missions and responsibilities of the international community.
As the world’s largest developing country, China struggled with poverty for a long time. To tackle this global challenge, China rolled out the poverty alleviation campaign unmatched in human history in scale, intensity, and number of people benefiting, achieving a remarkable milestone in human development.
After eight years of sustained effort, China lifted nearly 100 million rural residents out of absolute poverty, achieving the poverty reduction target of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.
Since the launch of reform and opening-up more than four decades ago, China has lifted over 800 million people out of poverty, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global total over the same period.
Following the country’s historic victory in the fight against poverty, China spent five years consolidating those gains and effectively linking poverty alleviation with rural revitalization. All related tasks were successfully completed, and the bottom line of preventing a large-scale relapse into poverty was firmly upheld.
China’s historic achievements in poverty reduction have contributed Chinese wisdom and solutions to the global cause.
Through years of exploration and practice, China has forged a path to poverty reduction with Chinese characteristics and developed its own theory of poverty alleviation, making significant original contributions to enriching the study of poverty eradication.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s works, including “Up and Out of Poverty,” have been translated into multiple languages and have become important reading for political leaders and scholars in many countries.
China’s sound approach to poverty reduction, effective institutional design, and targeted poverty alleviation efforts offer valuable ideas and practical pathways that can be learned from, replicated, and adapted by other countries seeking to help people still living in poverty achieve prosperity and well-being.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that China’s targeted poverty alleviation strategy is an important pathway toward achieving poverty reduction goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and that China’s experience offers valuable lessons for developing countries.
China has consistently been an advocate and doer in the global fight against poverty and the pursuit of development. At its core, poverty reduction is a development issue. Over the years, China has provided development assistance to more than 160 countries. It has launched the Global Partnership for Poverty Alleviation and Development, and announced eight actions for global development.
China has listed poverty reduction as the top priority among the eight areas of cooperation under the Global Development Initiative and included “promoting global cooperation in poverty reduction” in the draft outline of its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030).
In Cambodia, the project dubbed the Cambodia-China Friendship Village for Poverty Alleviation has helped improve local residents’ quality of life. In Madagascar, Chinese agricultural experts have provided hands-on training in farming techniques, leading to a substantial increase in hybrid rice yields. The Juncao technology has taken root in more than 100 countries and regions, becoming a “grass of happiness” that benefits communities around the world.
China has consistently sought to turn its own development experience into international public goods that can be shared with the world. Through practical cooperation and stronger South-South cooperation, it continues to advance global efforts to tackle poverty and support countries in pursuing shared development.
The world is now entering the final push to achieve the poverty reduction goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Affected by a combination of factors, including sluggish economic growth, frequent geopolitical conflicts and the politicization of development issues, global poverty reduction has stalled, while deep-seated challenges such as widening development disparities between the Global North and the Global South and growing development deficits have become increasingly pronounced.
A recent report jointly released by the UN Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford, shows that 1.2 billion people worldwide still live in acute multidimensional poverty.
In the face of these daunting challenges, the international community must stand together, share responsibility, learn from one another’s development experiences and deepen practical cooperation. Only through such collective efforts can we build a more inclusive, equitable and resilient global development framework.
A just cause finds great support, and a journey with many companions gets far. China will continue to work hand in hand with the international community, share its experience in poverty reduction and help more countries explore paths to poverty alleviation and sustainable development suited to their own national conditions. Together, we can build a better world free from poverty and blessed with shared prosperity.
