Chinese President Xi Jinping announced his country's victory in the fight against poverty, stating that over the past eight years, nearly 100 million people have surpassed the poverty line.
In a meeting about China's performance in combating poverty, the Chinese president said, "Thanks to the joint efforts of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people, we have achieved a complete victory in fighting poverty." He pointed out that in the past eight years, 98.99 million rural residents were lifted out of poverty, and 832 counties and 128,000 villages were removed from the list of impoverished areas. He added, "Since the beginning of the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, 770 million rural residents have been rescued from the clutches of poverty." Jinping stated, "During this period, China contributed 70% to the global fight against poverty. With such successes, China has created another miracle that will remain in history."
Xi Jinping first announced the idea of targeted poverty alleviation in 2013 during a visit to Hunan Province in central China. The economy of the People’s Republic of China is the second-largest economy in the world after the United States, having surpassed Japan's economy in 2010. It is the fastest-growing large developing economy and has been the fastest for the past thirty years, with an annual growth rate exceeding 10%. The growth of national per capita income has reduced poverty by 8% annually over the past three decades. China falls into the lower middle-income category globally, with a per capita gross domestic product of $3,180, ranking 104 out of 178 countries and 97 out of 178 countries with a per capita GDP of $5,943 in 2008, according to the International Monetary Fund's ranking. Therefore, China is the world's largest trading nation, the largest exporter, and the second-largest importer.
