China’s fight against extreme poverty may be over, but a stark urban-rural divide lingers
- Since Beijing declared the end of extreme poverty in 2021, the government has placed greater emphasis on revitalising rural areas
- But success has been uneven, with many undeveloped regions struggling to find a niche and still dependent on small-scale farming
Two hours’ drive from the nearest city, in a secluded village tucked at the end of a winding mountain road, a woman clad in traditional Bai clothing stares into a camera and touts the benefits of locally-grown fragrant rice.
“The rice is nutritious and has a delicate sweetness,” she tells viewers on the live-stream e-commerce platform, Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Propped up in corners of the air-conditioned room are various handicrafts for sale: blue handbags, handkerchiefs and embroidered tablecloths, tie-dyed in the traditional style that Bai people have used for 1,500 years.
Outside, fields of rice, yellow peaches and dekopon oranges stretch out to the foothills, with farms raising chickens and pigs dotted among them.
Just a decade ago, this picturesque village in the Wuling Mountains of central Hunan province was a backwater where residents earned less than 1,000 (US$147) yuan a year.
In 2011, four in five young people born in Hequn moved away to seek work and more than 40 per cent of the population, which numbers just over 1,200 people, lived in poverty.