Premier Li Keqiang announced March 5 that China will further reduce the poor rural population by more than 10 million, including 2.8 million people who will be relocated from inhospitable areas.

Poverty alleviation efforts will be carried out through the development of local industries, education and better healthcare, Li said when delivering the Government Work Report at the first session of the 13th National People’s Congress.

“This is an extremely positive thing to do,” said Charles Foster, chairman of U.S.-China Partnerships in Houston, Texas, the United States and former chairman of the Asia Society Texas Center.

China will do more to support areas affected by extreme poverty, and the central budget’s newly enlarged poverty reduction funds and related transfer payments will be weighted toward these areas.

Li said that China will tailor measures to individuals and individual households to ensure that targeted poor populations — elderly people, people with disabilities and people with serious diseases — receive the assistance they need.

“China has already made extraordinary progress. It’s a fact that China has lifted more people out of poverty at the fastest rate anywhere and anytime in history already.”

While everyone in China has benefited from phenomenal economic growth during the three decades, the success has not been uniform, Foster said.

“People in coastal areas, entrepreneurs and people with better education have fared better. Now, China focuses on eliminating more extreme poverty. That’s the right thing to do.”

Foster said the potential outcome is promising. “The good news is that China has a history of thinking big and carrying out tasks on a large scale. It verifies that China can embrace huge projects like this.”

Besides bringing a better quality of life to more people, Foster said this policy will help prevent another problem China faces — a large migration of people from the interior to coastal cities, which puts a lot of pressure on the infrastructure of cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【扶贫】fú pín poverty alleviation an action that aims to promote economic growth, which will permanently lift as many people as possible over a poverty line.

【搬迁】bān qiān relocate to move to another place.

国务院总理李克强3月5日作政府工作报告，其中提到，中国今年再减少农村贫困人口1000万以上，完成易地扶贫搬迁280万人。

李克强代表国务院向十三届全国人大一次会议作政府工作报告时说，要深入推进产业、教育、健康扶贫。

位于美国德克萨斯州休斯顿的美中合作委员会主席查尔斯·福斯特说：“这件事情有非常积极的作用。”他还曾担任亚洲协会德克萨斯中心主席。

中国将强化对深度贫困地区支持，中央财政新增扶贫投入及有关转移支付向深度贫困地区倾斜。

李克强总理在报告中说，中国将对老年人、残疾人、重病患者等特定贫困人口，因户因人落实保障措施。

福斯特说：“中国已经取得了非凡的成就。历史上从没有哪个国家像中国这样迅速帮助如此多的人脱离贫困，这一点无可否认。”

尽管每位中国人都从过去三十年的高速经济发展中获益，但这其中仍存在差异。福斯特说：“沿海地区的居民、企业家、和受教育程度更高的人获益更多。如今，中国集中力量消除更多的深度贫困。这样做非常正确。”

福斯特说，可以预见的成果非常鼓舞人心。“好消息是，中国一直擅长于从大局着眼，大范围开展工作。中国可以以此实施大工程，这已经得到证实。”

福斯特说，除了让更多人享受到更高品质的生活外，减贫政策还有助于防止中国出现另一个问题：大量人口从内陆迁移到沿海地区，这将给上海和北京等城市的基础设施带来许多压力。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)