China poverty alleviation, raising standard of living

[JSCh]

Across China: A "demoted" official and his ambition to fight poverty
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-16 10:36:10|Editor: Liangyu


HEFEI, April 16 (Xinhua) -- When Li Chuanxi, a then 54-year-old official, first told his wife last year that he volunteered to become a poverty relief worker in a remote rural village, his wife answered casually without taking her eyes off the TV.

The next day, learning Li really meant it, she lost her temper.

"My friends also said that I must be insane," Li said. "'You are no longer young and you've got all you want,' they told me, 'why go into these troubles?'"

Their doubts made sense. For Li, a city-level official who used to work in a comfortable office in the provincial capital city of Hefei in east China's Anhui Province, the shift to an impoverished village seemed a demotion.

"I just wanted to figure out myself what exactly was the crux of the matter in China's fight against poverty," Li said.

In April last year, Li led a three-member poverty relief team and arrived at Sige, a mountainous village more than 200 km from Li's home in Hefei.

The village is located in Wangjiang County, which is recognized as being in "dire poverty".

The first thing they did in the village was to visit every household to find out the specific reasons for their poverty.

"During one visit, we saw a villager almost dying of illness and hunger in his home," said Zhou Qing, Li's colleague in the CPC Anhui provincial committee and a member of the poverty relief team.

"However, we also found some people who simply wanted to keep the 'poverty' label as they believed that receiving regular government subsidies implied a 'sound connection' with the government," Zhou said.

In each case, Li explained the CPC's poverty reduction policies with great patience, according to Zhou.

Li used hard work and his previous experience to aid rural development in the village.

He encouraged villagers to plant walnuts and pitayas and to participate in the village's photovoltaic power project to increase incomes.

Also, while inspecting every corner of the village, Li found a piece of wasteland located across from a main traffic artery. A billboard was later set up on the land, bringing an additional 50,000 yuan (7,900 U.S. dollars) of advertisement revenue annually for the village.

He called on more than 60 CPC members in the village to take the lead in shaking off poverty and helping others. Two months after Li's arrival, he held a CPC meeting in which he asked each Party member at the village to talk about their original aspiration when they joined the Party.

"To my surprise, their answers were very simple and sincere. Some said they joined the Party just out of the will to 'work a little longer, carry a little heavier and contribute a little more' to the village than others," Li said. "I was deeply touched."

Thereafter, Li took the opportunities of activities of the village CPC organization to communicate the spirit of the CPC Central Committee's major documents, decisions and policies regarding poverty alleviation and the rural revitalization strategy.

He also stressed the importance of Party building and warned the CPC members to observe the Party's code of conduct and oppose corruption.

He called on CPC members to put up a small plate on the gates of their homes to indicate their CPC member identity so that the public would know that the CPC members would always be the ones they could turn to when facing problems.

Thanks to Li's work, a total of 167 households have been lifted out of poverty last year at Sige and there are only no more than 20 left.

"I like Li. He is father-like, and I'm glad to listen to his advices," said 33-year-old villager Zhu Chengmeng.

Zhu suffers from a chronic illness, which makes him unable to do heavy labor. In 2010, his father died and his wife underwent a surgery, leaving his family struggling to make ends meet.

"Li told me that I was still young. He encouraged me to learn home decoration skills and to do my best," Zhu said.

Working as a home renovator now, Zhu made more than 50,000 yuan last year, and, with some loans, he bought a car that his family had been longing for years.

China has lifted more than 60 million people out of poverty in the past five years, with the poverty rate dropping from 10.2 percent to less than 4 percent amid its push to complete the building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020. By that time, absolute poverty will be eliminated.

For Li, 2020 will be the end of his term as the poverty relief team leader at Sige.

"I have made up my mind to stay true to my mission and carry my work through to see the goal being achieved," Li said.

 

[TaiShang]

Photovoltaic project launched in Sichuan to reduce poverty

1471km to Beijing
2018-04-16

A photovoltaic (PV) project, aiming at reducing poverty, has gone into operation in a remote county in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

China's state energy giant State Power Investment Corporation Limited said Saturday that the project started to generate electricity in early April, benefiting more than 2,400 poor people.

Located in Hongyuan County in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, the 20-megawatt solar power plant is capable of producing more than 26.24 million kilowatt-hours of electricity every year.

Local residents can use the electricity, and the surplus will be sold to electric power sectors, which is expected to help increase the income of each of those poor people by at least 1,000 yuan every year.

Sichuan launched a poverty alleviation program based on PV power system at the end of 2017. A total of 19 projects are planned to be built in 17 counties. The Hongyuan County project is the first to have been completed and put into operation.

 

[JSCh]

PUBLIC RELEASE: 10-MAY-2018
Free eyeglasses improve student math scores
JAMA OPHTHALMOLOGY

Bottom Line: Providing free eyeglasses through a hospital-based vision center to students in rural China with poor vision helped to improve student math scores.

Why The Research Is Interesting: Many children in rural China with poor vision, mostly due to nearsightedness, don't own or wear eyeglasses, largely because of a lack of access to vision care services.

Who and When: 2,613 children evaluated from 31 primary schools in Yongshou County, a nationally designated poor county in rural China; clinical trial conducted during 2014-2015

What (Study Interventions and Outcomes): A vision center was set up in the local government hospital of Yongshou; school-based vision screenings by teachers at the beginning of the school year identified 1,200 students with poor vision; those students received either early (in the middle of the school year) or late (at the end of school year) referral to the vision center for eye exams and free glasses as needed. All students were given a standardized math test at the beginning of the school year and the primary outcome was performance on an end-of-year math test.

How (Study Design): This was a randomized clinical trial (RCT). RCTs allow the strongest inferences to be made about the true effect of an intervention. However, not all clinical trial results can be replicated in real-world settings because patient characteristics or other variables may differ from those studied.

Authors: Yaojiang Shi, PhD, Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University, China, and colleagues.

Results: Students who got eyeglasses earlier in the school year did better on an end-of-year math test than children who got their eyeglasses later in the school year.

Study Limitations: The study included just one county in China and it did not calculate program costs or perform any other economic modeling.

For more details and to read the full study, please visit the For The Media website. (doi: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2018.1329)​

Free eyeglasses improve student math scores | EurekAlert! Science News

 

[JSCh]

Broadband to cover 90% of poor villages in 2018
chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-06-07 16:16

Major telecom carrier China Mobile's ad painted on a wall in a village says: "Use it! China Mobile 4G covers our village." [Photo/VCG]

China plans to quicken its pace in building network infrastructure facilities to push ahead the goal of covering more than 90 percent of poverty-stricken villages with broadband within this year, according to a recent plan.

According to China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), the government expects to fulfill the goal by 2020, and the recent plan announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will achieve the aim two years ahead of schedule.

By 2020, 98 percent of total 122,900 listed poor villages across the country will be covered by broadband.

From late 2015, China started implementing three pilot telecommunication service projects with an investment of over 40 billion yuan ($6 billion).

When the projects are finished by the end of this year, 130,000 administrative villages, including 43,000 in poverty, will be connected with optical fiber network. The network speed will reach 65M, exceeding average speed in urban areas.

"We have made another plan this year to integrate 4G network into the pilot telecommunication services projects, with a focus on promoting 4G coverage in poor villages," a senior official from the MIIT said, according to the Economic Daily.

The official said that the central government has set the subsidies in the pilot projects at a unified rate of 30 percent, different from the separate rates due to different regions, such as 15 percent in the east.

"We'll urge the carriers to further increase the network speed and reduce the expense. Telecom operators are encouraged to introduce special preferential policy for impoverished people in a bid to reduce their burden," he added.

The recent plan has also pointed out that measures should be taken to speed up the popularization of intelligent terminals, app services, actively promoting the development of "internet + education" and "internet + health" platforms.

The official said that the broadband network's role in the poverty alleviation has not been fully utilized, and the penetration rates in e-commerce, online medical care and education were low.

Therefore, the popularization of intelligent terminals should be accelerated, and efforts should be taken to promote internet applications in e-commerce, education, medical treatment and agricultural production.

 

[Solomon2]

China's state energy giant State Power Investment Corporation Limited said Saturday that the project started to generate electricity in early April, benefiting more than 2,400 poor people.

Is this a one-time thing or is there a push for rural electrification at the regional or national level? Details, please.

 

[TaiShang]

Is this a one-time thing or is there a push for rural electrification at the regional or national level? Details, please.

Targeted poverty alleviation. In this sense, the only nationwide policy is to end poverty. But, applications of the policy will depend on the conditions that local communities are in.

1. Usually, first, a target area is visited by experts who hold comprehensive survey and prepare technical reports.

2. The underlying causes of poverty are determined. The cause will differ from area to area. In some, it is because the size of villages are too small (just a few houses), it is impossible economic activity there (such as Taobao village collectives). In other cases, it is due to lack of transportation. Or, it could be vulnerability to natural disasters such as floods which impact production.

3. In this process, the survey team has to live in the area and thoroughly experience it. No sit-in-the-office type of reporting.

4. Then, based on the report, an action plan is prepared. Funds are allocated. Time line is made.

5. Policy implemented and initial results are collected. If the policy is found to be making an impact on the livelihood of people, then, policy will continue. If not, back to the drawing board again.

 

[Solomon2]

Targeted poverty alleviation. In this sense, the only nationwide policy is to end poverty. But, applications of the policy will depend on the conditions that local communities are in.

1. Usually, first, a target area is visited by experts who hold comprehensive survey and prepare technical reports.

2. The underlying causes of poverty are determined. The cause will differ from area to area. In some, it is because the size of villages are too small (just a few houses), it is impossible economic activity there (such as Taobao village collectives). In other cases, it is due to lack of transportation. Or, it could be vulnerability to natural disasters such as floods which impact production.

3. In this process, the survey team has to live in the area and thoroughly experience it. No sit-in-the-office type of reporting.

4. Then, based on the report, an action plan is prepared. Funds are allocated. Time line is made.

5. Policy implemented and initial results are collected. If the policy is found to be making an impact on the livelihood of people, then, policy will continue. If not, back to the drawing board again.

Thank you, this is very very interesting to me; it shows a big change in how such poverty-alleviation programs are run, that Party big-wigs are resisting the temptation for showy gigantic-scale initiatives that have sometimes been known to do more damage than relief.

Can you provide links for more details, please? Thank you.

 

[TaiShang]

Thank you, this is very very interesting to me; it shows a big change in how such poverty-alleviation programs are run, that Party big-wigs are resisting the temptation for showy gigantic-scale initiatives that have sometimes been known to do more damage than relief.

Can you provide links for more details, please? Thank you.

This gives a brief visual narrative on what TPR means.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-10/10/content_33079251.htm

***

President Xi urges lifting every Chinese out of poverty

CGTN
2018-06-11

China vows to lift 30 mln out of poverty in 3 years

China in 2017: Solid efforts to win battle against poverty

China has pledged to eradicate poverty by 2020 and identified "reducing poverty" as one of its "three tough battles," alongside "preventing financial risks" and "tackling pollution."

The country's poverty threshold is about 3,000 yuan (468 US dollars) in terms of annual net income of rural residents. Between the end of 2012 and the end of 2017, China lifted a total of 68.53 million rural people out of poverty, with the poverty rate falling from 10.2 percent to 3.1 percent, data of the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

There were still 30.46 million rural people living below the national poverty line at the end of 2017.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said in a separate instruction that the battle against poverty should be integrated with the rural vitalization strategy.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (C) walks in a paddy field during an inspection tour in Baishui Village, Yunji Township, Hengnan County in central China's Hunan Province, June 11, 2018. /Xinhua Photo

The rural vitalization strategy is part of China's efforts to develop a modernized economy amid the economy's transition from a phase of rapid growth to one of high-quality development, according to Xi's report to the 19th CPC National Congress last October.

China will therefore promote integrated urban-rural development and build rural areas with thriving businesses, pleasant living environments, social etiquette and civility, effective governance and prosperity.

Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua, also member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended Monday's meeting and elaborated on the tasks to fight poverty.

(Top photo: Chinese President Xi Jinping talks with villagers and members of a local poverty alleviation team as he visits the home of an impoverished family in Sanhe Village of Sanchahe Township in Zhaojue County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Sichuan Province, February 11, 2018. /Xinhua Photo)

 

[Solomon2]

Excellent article, thanks.

These aren't Han Chinese, are they? I don't recognize their ethnicity, do you?

 

[TaiShang]

Excellent article, thanks.
These aren't Han Chinese, are they? I don't recognize their ethnicity, do you?

They are Chinese. Regular folks that you meet all over the country. Poverty tends to concentrate in rural areas, especially in areas where population decreases due to migration to larger cities.

Most of the time, the only solution is to merge those small pockets of resident areas in remote places so that a local economy can be created. I guess this is the main reason for underdevelopment in certain areas. No matter what, economic activity cannot be started due to lack of a local economy. The solution is to either keep giving hand outs or encouraging people to move out to concentrated areas, forming farm collectives, promoting tourist attractions (if ever) or creating a Taobao economy from a popular local product.

Another solution is to anticipate folks to move back to rural areas to start business. But, of course, once a city folk, always a city folk. I moved from a very rural area into Taibei. Although I have to live in a small room (buying a home in Taibei on a regular salary is near impossible), I just cannot go back to the fields. Should be same in other part of China, and elsewhere, as well.

***

More graduates prefer second-tier cities
China Daily, June 12, 2018

China's college graduates are leaving first-tier cities for second-tier ones, according to the annual College Graduates' Employment Report issued on Monday.

The report said that 22.3 percent of college graduates last year chose to work in first-tier cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen - down 1.3 percentage points from 2016 and 5.9 percentage points from 2013.

In 2017, 21.7 percent college graduates chose to leave first-tier cities after working there for three years, up 2.5 percentage points from 2016 and 8 percentage points from 2015.

The report also found that leading second-tier cities are luring more recent graduates.

Around 35.6 percent of college graduates who chose to work in one of the top 10 second-tier cities such as Hangzhou, Chengdu and Wuhan, were from other regions in 2017, up 3.6 percentage points from the previous year, the report said.

The report, the 10th of its kind, was based on a survey of 306,000 graduates from 30 provinces and regions. It was released by MyCOS, an education consulting and research institute in Beijing.

Wang Boqing, founder of MyCOS, said large populations, traffic congestion, smog, surging property prices and great difficulty in obtaining permanent residence, or hukou, have brought high pressure to life in first-tier cities for college graduates, which gives second-tier cities an opportunity to attract talented workers.

Second-tier cities have rolled out a slate of favorable policies to attract university graduates, which include preferential treatment to obtain hukou, as well as housing and government subsidies, he said.

In an effort to attract more talent to the city, Wuhan, Hubei province, has planned to build affordable housing for university graduates, and allow graduates to buy or rent apartments at a discount of at least 20 percent of the market price.

Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, however, said that the governments of such cities should notice that welfare, housing and money can attract people in a short time.

"Professionals aim mainly at prospects for career development rather than just benefits," Chu said, adding that those cities should maintain their advantages, such as low cost of living and nicer environments, to retain their appeal.

The cities should provide more opportunities for employment or entrepreneurship that are similar to those in first-tier cities, he said.

China's universities are expected to produce a record 8.2 million graduates this year.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2018-06/12/content_52049385.htm

@Cybernetics , @AndrewJin , @cirr

 

[JSCh]

Rural Taobao Partners China’s 'Father of Hybrid Rice' to Boost Saltwater Yields
LIAO SHUMIN
DATE: THU, 06/14/2018 - 13:16 / SOURCE:YICAI

Rural Taobao Partners China’s 'Father of Hybrid Rice' to Boost Saltwater Yields​

(Yicai Global) June 14 -- Alibaba Group Holding’s rural e-commerce unit will partner with a research and development team led by Yuan Longping, known as China’s father of hybrid rice, on a project to boost yields on saline lands in the country.

Rural Taobao will jointly conduct the saltwater rice project with Yuan’s team from Yuanmi Agricultural Technology in Qingdao, a port city in eastern China’s Shandong province, state-backed news site The Paper reported.

“Yuan has already increased the yield to 500 kilograms per mu (667 square meters), we must strive to obtain yields USD1000 per mu by using internet technology,” said Alibaba Chief Executive Jack Ma.

China is home to some 1 million square-kilometers of saline land, accounting for some 10 percent of the country. Saltwater land is a major hindrance to rural poverty alleviation as it is associated with very low rice yields.

Born in 1930, Yuan is well-known in China for being developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s. He has more recently focused research on improving rice-growing capabilities in saltwater.

Rural Taobao, a platform to assist countryside entrepreneurs, will join Yuanmi’s Chinese Rice Flavor and Quality Research Institute at China Academy of Sciences in Shanghai to explore future e-commerce opportunities for the country’s less well-off communities.

Yuan announced this month that a roadmap for research into hybrid saltwater rice technology has been completed, and full-scale trials will be carried out in six provinces across the country to test anti-saline hybrid saltwater rice varieties. Yuanmi aims to roll-out large-scale plantations nationwide by 2020.

The company aims to 100 million mu of hybrid saltwater rice in the country in the next three years. Based on a minimum yield of 300 kg per mu of saline land, grain production can be increased by 30 billion kilograms per year, equivalent to the total annual grain output of Hunan province.

 

[Cybernetics]

They are Chinese. Regular folks that you meet all over the country. Poverty tends to concentrate in rural areas, especially in areas where population decreases due to migration to larger cities.

Most of the time, the only solution is to merge those small pockets of resident areas in remote places so that a local economy can be created. I guess this is the main reason for underdevelopment in certain areas. No matter what, economic activity cannot be started due to lack of a local economy. The solution is to either keep giving hand outs or encouraging people to move out to concentrated areas, forming farm collectives, promoting tourist attractions (if ever) or creating a Taobao economy from a popular local product.

Another solution is to anticipate folks to move back to rural areas to start business. But, of course, once a city folk, always a city folk. I moved from a very rural area into Taibei. Although I have to live in a small room (buying a home in Taibei on a regular salary is near impossible), I just cannot go back to the fields. Should be same in other part of China, and elsewhere, as well.

China already started the trend of developing its lower tier cities and rural areas. The building boom slowdown (relatively speaking) in 1st tier cities and population limits is a good thing for long term development, no matter what some reports say. This actually pushes large amounts investment and capital inputs into the rural areas without much specific efforts, kick starting the local economy. On the ground reality is that these 农民工/migrant workers saved most of their income, live very simple lives in the cities and went home to build their own 别墅/detached homes and start businesses. Many low end supply chains are leaving the big cities for the small towns and rural areas, it's a positive trend. These migrant workers are better off making money in major cities and leaving once they are done their work. For those with relevant skills for the city economy then they would stay. Even back in the rural areas, most still live close to a regional city/township center.

Rural areas are experiencing a building boom. This is helping the low cost housing construction industry which is commonly used in the West. Previously most of the houses followed the trend of building with concrete rather than low cost prefab components.

Somewhere in rural Henan. Houses are not fancy but better than what they had before and are much better than what they could afford in the cities.

House built for 200,000 Yuan ($31,000) and finished in 30 days.

3 story house for 230,000 Yuan ($36,000), construction is still ongoing.

 

[TaiShang]

China already started the trend of developing its lower tier cities and rural areas. The building boom slowdown (relatively speaking) in 1st tier cities and population limits is a good thing for long term development, no matter what some reports say. This actually pushes large amounts investment and capital inputs into the rural areas without much specific efforts, kick starting the local economy. On the ground reality is that these 农民工/migrant workers saved most of their income, live very simple lives in the cities and went home to build their own 别墅/detached homes and start businesses. Many low end supply chains are leaving the big cities for the small towns and rural areas, it's a positive trend. These migrant workers are better off making money in major cities and leaving once they are done their work. For those with relevant skills for the city economy then they would stay. Even back in the rural areas, most still live close to a regional city/township center.

Rural areas are experiencing a building boom. This is helping the low cost housing construction industry which is commonly used in the West. Previously most of the houses followed the trend of building with concrete rather than low cost prefab components.

Somewhere in rural Henan. Houses are not fancy but better than what they had before and are much better than what they could afford in the cities.

House built for 200,000 Yuan ($31,000) and finished in 30 days.

3 story house for 230,000 Yuan ($36,000), construction is still ongoing.

That's a great development trend. It helps distribute wealth and ensure a certain economic equality. Otherwise, overtime, life becomes so difficult not only in the rural/underdeveloped, but also in the city/developed areas.

I read that the US opioid crisis has also in part to do with not only underdeveloped rural infrastructure, but also over-developed city structure.

Hence, uneven development eventually brings many hazards to entire country.

It is great that, even though China is still a developing country and major cities remain very safe and attractive, China's government is preempting a socio-economic crisis by encouraging/promoting rural development,

The way Guizhou goes through a big data revolution is a great example.

I talked to an MA student from Guizhou province and she actually told me she planned to go back home after graduation from a university in Shandong because "there are so many big companies I can work there such as Alibaba and Baidu."

 

[TaiShang]

Tibet relocates villagers living in high-altitude nature reserve

Xinhua/chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-06-19

A motorcade relocating villagers is on its way to the new homes in Lhasa, Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, on Sunday. [Photo/Xinhua]
LHASA - Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region is carrying out its first relocation program for villagers living in high-altitude nature reserve, with around 1,100 villagers moving in their new homes on Monday.

Photo taken on Monday shows houses at the relocation site in Lhasa, Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region. [Photo/Xinhua]

Residents from two villages located in Qiangtang national nature reserve at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters completed their two-day journey and settled at an area 27 kilometers from the regional capital Lhasa, at an altitude of 3,800 meters.

Residents at relocation site welcome newcomers in Lhasa, Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, on Monday. [Photo/Xinhua]

"In the previous location, there are little oxygen and public facilities, and life expectancy is lower than the region's average," said Dzongga, deputy head of the regional forestry bureau.

An 81-year-old woman and her family members relocate to their new home in Lhasa, Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, on Monday. [Photo/Xinhua]

The relocation program helps to improve local people's lives and reduce human activities that might harm the fragile environment in the nature reserve, Dzongga said.

A pregnant woman, along with her family member, is on her way to her new home in Lhasa, Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, on Sunday. [Photo/Xinhua]
The regional government spent 226 million yuan (around $35.1 million) on the relocation program, building houses, kindergartens and public facilities as well as offering subsidies for villagers.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201806/19/WS5b28799da310010f8f59d97c_5.html

***

Relocation, @Solomon2 , @Cybernetics

 

[Solomon2]

LHASA - Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region is carrying out its first relocation program for villagers living in high-altitude nature reserve, with around 1,100 villagers moving ..."In the previous location, there are little oxygen and public facilities, and life expectancy is lower than the region's average," said Dzongga, deputy head of the regional forestry bureau...

Was this relocation voluntary or forced? After all, the locals had no trouble breathing the air for generations but there's no doubt that Han Chinese who seek to control them do.