China poverty: Xi Jinping’s war drives some to riches, but leaves others behind
- President Xi Jinping declared victory in China’s decades-long war on extreme poverty last year, having improved the lives of hundreds of millions of people
- But experts say rising incomes have made China’s poverty line outdated, while the complex criteria to determine who gets aid has also fuelled unhappiness
At his village along a “poverty alleviation road” in Hunan province, farmer Liu Qingyou shares a booklet detailing how Xi Jinping’s government has hoisted him and 100 million other Chinese from the breadline.
In it, the cause of his family’s hardship is diagnosed as “illness” and “schooling”, followed by a list of ways the state has helped, from grain subsidies to improving the yield of their orange groves.
For Liu, the following years brought another boost: a new road cutting through Hunan’s mountainous countryside, helping transport produce to market twice as quickly and giving valuable links to nearby towns.
But it has not been a smooth journey up China’s economic ladder.
Liu says his harvests have not improved despite efforts by local authorities to help him diversify his crop. Meanwhile, his wooden house does little to keep out temperatures that plunge close to zero in the winter.