New | China’s Communist Party vows to wipe out poverty in five years

The ruling Communist Party yesterday pledged to do everything it could to eradicate poverty in the world’s most populous nation in the next five years.

The party would take “unconventional measures” and “perfect methods” in its battle to wipe out poverty, the ruling Politburo said after a meeting chaired by president and party chief Xi Jinping.

READ MORE: China’s plan to beat poverty by 2020 an ‘extremely difficult mission’

“We will mobilise all the resources available within the party and in society to win the battle of poverty elimination,” the Politburo said in a statement cited by Xinhua.

The call to lift all people on the mainland out of poverty by 2020 dovetails with guidelines in the draft of then 13th five-year plan endorsed recently by the fifth plenum, the annual session of the party’s decision-making Central Committee.

According to official statistics, 70.2 million people in rural areas were living below the poverty line as of the end of last year. That threshold was defined as an annual income of 2,300 yuan (HK$2,790).

The Politburo said party committees and governments at various levels would have collective responsibility for realising the goal.

It said the party planned to lift about 50 million people out of poverty by the end of 2020.