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HEFEI, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Shahboz Babaev
was not surprised when he read the news that China had removed all 832
remaining impoverished counties from the poverty list. The
last nine counties, all in southwest China's Guizhou Province, had
eliminated absolute poverty, the provincial government announced last
week. "The Chinese concept of
promoting unity in eradicating poverty is a great example and worth
being learned by other countries," said Babaev, an Uzbek lecturer in
economics at the Anhui Finance and Trade Vocational College in Hefei,
capital of east China's Anhui Province. The
28-year-old's thoughts are not groundless. Babaev had paid a visit to
the Dabie Mountains, one of the poorest areas in central China, where he
met local people and witnessed the changes in their lives. He
has written an article based on the information collected during his
trip in October and plans to share it on his social media account. In
the deep mountains, he met Ge Dali, 54, one of the formerly
impoverished villagers living in Tiansi Village in the city of Qianshan. The adobe cattle shed used to be Ge's house where his family members lived for nearly 40 years. "It's dark and wet, with few windows and leaking roofs. I have never seen such a shabby house before," Babaev said. Suffering from slipped discs, Ge was unable to farm for years. His family was registered as an impoverished household in 2014. "My
name Dali means 'big strength' in Chinese, but I was strengthless to
shake off poverty due to the back problem," Ge told Babaev. Following the government policy to cover most medical bills for poor households, Ge received surgery on his back. Then,
with the government funds and bank loans, he started raising cattle and
goats and planting rice and tea, bringing home 50,000 yuan (about 7,600
U.S. dollars) in 2019. Next to his old shack, Ge built a new two-story house equipped with electric appliances. By
the end of 2019, more than 87,100 impoverished residents, including Ge,
were lifted out of poverty in Qianshan, bringing the incidence of
poverty to 0.31 percent from 16.93 percent in 2014. During
his trip, Babaev found a country road built to connect different scenic
spots in the mountains, which allows local people to make a living by
engaging in the tourism business. "Massive
investment in infrastructures such as roads and electricity has
connected remote and impoverished regions to the rest of the country,
giving people better access to services, markets and other opportunities
to build better lives," Babaev said in his article. He
also met Zhang Chuanfeng, a man with a disability, who livestreamed and
sold his hometown specialties such as honey and sweet potatoes online. China
is set to eliminate absolute poverty by the end of this year, and meet
the poverty eradication goal set out in the United Nations 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule. Since
the reform and opening up, about 800 million Chinese people have cast
off poverty, representing over 70 percent of global poverty reduction.
For seven consecutive years, China lifted more than 10 million people
out of poverty every year. The
Chinese government has dispatched Party officials to impoverished
villages to support local governments in carrying out a set of specific
measures to reduce poverty. The dispatch, according to Babaev, is a
necessary and effective way to meet the target. Babaev expects to become a public servant in Uzbekistan someday in the future. "I've
learned so much about China's fight against poverty from this trip, and
I hope to bring these lessons back to my country," he said. Enditem
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