Trade war with US is hindering China’s efforts to combat poverty, Beijing admits
- The government remains confident of meeting its targets; it has set 2020 as the deadline to eradicate absolute poverty in the country
- Liu Yongfu, China’s leading anti-poverty official, emphasised the development of industries in poverty-stricken areas
China’s trade war with the US is hurting its campaign to alleviate poverty but the government is confident of meeting its targets on schedule, said the country’s top anti-poverty official.
“It would not be factual if I said that the trade war has no impact [on China’s poverty alleviation campaign],” Liu Yongfu, director of State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation, said at a news conference held on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, one of the so-called Two Sessions, in Beijing on Thursday.
“Both economies have been affected as trade frictions rise and the economy serves as the foundation of poverty reduction,” he said.
“Employment in our impoverished areas has suffered because some enterprises have cut jobs.”
China’s top leadership has set 2020 as the deadline to eradicate absolute poverty in the country. Between 2012 and last year, China has lifted 80 million people out of indigence, and there were 16 million people who lived below the official poverty line by the end of 2018.