加载中…【China.Daily】Wang.Huiyao:Chinese.miracle.inpoverty.alleviation
(2021-01-26 14:18:37)
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中国经济 |
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Op-ed of China
Daily
By Wang Huiyao
| Founder of the Center for China and
Globalization(CCG)
Poverty is the most difficult
problem of human development in history and the biggest challenge
of globalization in the 21st century.
On Dec 14, the International
Forum on Human Experience in Poverty Reduction opened in Beijing
with more than 200 participants from over 60 countries and regions
and 20 international organizations.
Overseas participants said
China has made significant contributions to the cause of global
poverty reduction and that its rich experience in poverty reduction
can be useful for other countries.
Poverty alleviation is a
universal value of the international community. In the new round of
economic globalization, multinational companies have benefited from
the efficient allocation of resources, global supply chains and
value chains brought about by globalization.
However, at the same time, as
global governance lags behind global practice, multinational
corporations have not given back enough to regional and national
development, and globalization has exacerbated inequalities among
and within countries.
Over the past three decades,
global poverty alleviation has lagged far behind the pace of
globalization, and rising inequality has been the main cause of the
recent wave of counter-globalization.
Therefore, China's achievement
in poverty alleviation is of global significance and can contribute
to the further development of globalization by contributing to
global poverty alleviation.
Drones and automatic spraying machines,
controlled by technicians, spray pesticides and herbicides in a
village in Hebei province in March 2020.
[Photo/Xinhua]
As the only major economy in
the world to achieve positive growth last year, China has achieved
the poverty reduction target of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development 10 years ahead of schedule.
As the world's largest
developing country, China has reduced poverty by more than 850
million people during the 40 years of reform and opening-up,
accounting for more than 70 percent of global poverty reduction,
creating a "Chinese miracle" in the history of poverty
reduction.
Former US treasury secretary
and Harvard University President Lawrence Summers lauded the
achievement: "In less than two generations, China has evolved from
an impoverished nation to a nation setting the pace in crucial
aspects of artificial intelligence, a change that makes the
industrial revolution look small."
China owes its success in
reducing poverty to three factors:
First, China has embraced
globalization since its reform and opening-up, thus driving its
economy, the foundation of poverty alleviation. Poverty has been
reduced because of international trade. "Trade is better than aid,"
as former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan voiced.
Over the past four decades,
multinational companies have invested in China, contributing about
45 percent of import and export trade, more than 20 percent of
industrial value added, 20 percent of tax revenue, and 13 percent
of urban employment.
There are more than 200 million
migrant workers in China, and the income of migrant workers at
MNCs, and their remittances sent home have become an important
source that promotes China's economic growth.
Since China joined the WTO in
2001, China's GDP has expanded more than tenfold. In 1992, the
value of China's total international trade was $166 billion and
56.7 percent of the population was in absolute
poverty.
By 2018, the value of China's
total international trade reached $4.6 trillion, while the poverty
rate was already below 0.5 percent.
In 1992, Vietnam's total trade
came to $5.1 billion. And the percentage of population living below
poverty was still at 52 percent. But today, Vietnam's total trade
has gone up to $527 billion, a 100-fold increase. At the same time,
the population living below poverty declined 26 times to below 1.9
percent.
Similarly, in India, total
trade reached $45 billion in 1992, and poverty rate was 47.6
percent. By 2018, its total trade had risen to $940 billion, and
poverty had fallen to below 7 percent.
WTO and World Bank studies show
that international trade has a clear, positive impact on poverty
reduction, such as lowering the prices of consumer goods for the
poor and increasing access to overseas markets and better returns
for the poor engaged in productive activities.
Second, as a mega-country with
a super-large population, China has leveraged its system and policy
advantages to alleviate poverty. The government has taken advantage
of infrastructure, industrial development, education, health
support, and ecological environmental protection to reduce
poverty.
China's basic medical insurance
covers more than 1.3 billion people, its basic pension insurance
covers nearly 1 billion people, it guarantees compulsory education
for school-age children and teenagers in accordance with the law,
and the total number of students enrolled in higher education in
China has reached 40.2 million, making it the world's largest
higher education system.
In recent years,
poverty-alleviation projects nationwide, precise poverty
alleviation, scientific poverty alleviation, digital economy
poverty alleviation and other new models have come into being, and
the forces of the whole society apply policies and make decisions
based on poverty, so that tens of millions of people can be lifted
out of poverty in a relatively short period of time.
Third, further liberalization
of the house base policy can promote China's economic and social
reform and help fight poverty. By liberalizing the restrictions on
the transfer of rural residential bases and promoting the reform in
property rights of residential bases, migrant workers living in
cities, especially those who have already "urbanized" after 80 and
90 years, can enjoy the proceeds from the value-added of land
transfer and lay the foundation for their integration into
cities.
After reform and opening-up,
China has been making major policy innovations every decade,
releasing huge dividends. The rural household contract
responsibility system in 1978 liberated rural productivity and
transformed China from a shortage economy to an affluent
economy.
The urban housing system reform
in 1994 commercialized and monetized urban housing, booming Chinese
real estate market. The accession to the World Trade Organization
in 2001 made Chinese rural workers urbanized and China integrated
with the world, promoting the nation to be the second-largest
economy on the globe.
In the 2010s, the digital
economy and e-commerce connected China with the world and drove it
into the era of mobile payment.
In the 2020s, further property
rights and reform in residential bases will give birth to a new
group of the Chinese middle-income people, which stimulates the use
of idle residential bases in rural areas, encourages the two-way
flow between urban and rural areas, and creates wealth for 600
million people, thus fostering new urbanization.
Furthering the global poverty
alleviation requires international multilateral cooperation in
education, trade and investment, public health and other
areas.
Meanwhile, as a new development
engine, the "new infrastructure" of the digital economy brings
enormous development dividends to the world.
China can cooperate with other
countries in the digital sector to advance digital technologies,
set standards and provide high-quality services.
Poverty alleviation is a common
concern to mankind. China's achievements in poverty alleviation
have demonstrated the benefits of globalization.
China's successful integration
into the world economy is the best practice in resisting
anti-globalization as well as reducing the gap between the rich and
the poor, and is China's innovation in the theory and practice of
international poverty alleviation.
It is China's greatest soft
power. More developing countries can learn from China and we all
need to strengthen international cooperation, engage in
globalization, and jointly contribute to successful global poverty
alleviation.
From China Daily ,
2021-1-25
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