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Miao ethnic village shows the benefits of relocation and jobs at garment workshop Since he became general secretary of the Communist Party of China
Central Committee in 2012, Xi Jinping has gone on an inspection tour in
the country before Spring Festival every year. He has used the trips to visit people and officials at the grassroots
level, learn about people's livelihoods, and extend New Year's
greetings to people from around the country. With the traditional festival falling on Feb 12, Xi, who is also
Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, chose
Guizhou province, one of the least developed provinces, with a large
number of ethnic groups, as his destination. He arrived at his first stop, Huawu, a village in Bijie, on Wednesday
afternoon. There, he talked with villagers participating in festive
activities in a public square and extended his New Year's greetings to
people of all ethnic groups across the country. At the home of ethnic Miao villager Zhao Yuxue, Xi chatted with the
family while they were making huangba, a local traditional snack for
festivals made from sticky rice and soybean flour wrapped in reed
leaves. The 38-year-old villager and his family members moved into new homes
in 2016, thanks to a local resettlement project aimed at getting poor
people out of poverty through relocation from environmentally fragile
areas. Zhao said their lives are becoming better, and last year, his
family's income exceeded 60,000 yuan ($9,280), much more than before
resettlement. "I wish you a happier and sweeter life," Xi told the family. While visiting a workshop that helps villagers reduce poverty, Xi was
attracted by the exquisite handmade Miao embroidery garments and
ornaments made there. Yang Wenli, 25, who works at the workshop, said a handmade Miao
embroidery garment costs more than 10,000 yuan, and 70 percent of their
products are sold to customers through livestreaming. Xi learned about the workers' craft and gave a thumbs-up to the use
of Miao embroidery to pass down traditional ethnic culture, aid in the
battle against poverty and promote rural vitalization. "What's traditional is also fashionable," Xi said, urging the
promotion of Miao embroidery to make a greater contribution to rural
vitalization. Reducing poverty and improving people's livelihoods have been at the
top of the agenda during Xi's 80-plus inspection tours at home since
2012. He proposed the idea of targeted poverty alleviation in November 2013
when he visited the poverty-stricken village of Shibadong during an
inspection tour of Hunan province. The idea became a guideline for the
country to meet the target of eradicating extreme poverty in rural areas
by the end of last year. He has said on many occasions that all ethnic groups are part of the
big family of the Chinese nation, and no single ethnic minority group
will be left behind as the country works toward a moderately prosperous
society. Ahead of Spring Festival in 2020, Xi visited a village of the Wa
ethnic group in Tengchong, Yunnan province, where he learned about the
locals' poverty relief work and called for efforts to speed up the
development of ethnic minorities and areas with large ethnic minority
populations. The last nine poverty-stricken counties in Guizhou province, which
were also the last remaining poverty-stricken counties in China, were
officially removed from the poverty list in November. With the country having won the battle against extreme poverty, the
CPC Central Committee has decided to shift the focus of the country's
rural work from battling poverty to promoting rural vitalization. The central rural work conference in December stressed the need to
consolidate and extend the achievements of poverty alleviation, align
the achievements of poverty alleviation with rural revitalization, and
prevent people from falling back into poverty.
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