Coronavirus and natural disasters not enough to derail China’s anti-poverty efforts, Beijing says
- The National Rural Revitalization Administration says thanks to government support, there has been no major return to poverty in the countryside
- Even so, experts say a pressing issue for Beijing is the declining incomes of migrant workers disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 pandemic
The Chinese government has said it has averted a large-scale return to poverty after a difficult year riddled with coronavirus outbreaks and economic challenges, but according to experts the declining income of poor workers remains the real issue at hand.
On Sunday, the National Rural Revitalization Administration (NRRA) acknowledged there had been challenges this year in some regions of China, especially among highly vulnerable migrant workers.
“Due to the impact of coronavirus and natural disasters this year, some rural migrant workers, who had been lifted out of poverty, had to return to rural areas, poverty alleviation programmes were halted, agricultural products became unsaleable this year”, Xu Jianmin, a director at the NRRA, said on the agency’s official WeChat account.
“[But] after taking various efforts, all those problems have been solved and a large-scale return to poverty did not take place in the country.”
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But with the economy blighted by hardline Covid controls until recently, as well as external headwinds, officials have repeatedly warned that poverty alleviation measures could be undone.
As of November, 65.7 per cent of households monitored in China’s less developed central and western regions were cleared of risks of falling back into poverty, while the rest have received government help, Xu said.
Authorities also said as of November the number of rural residents who were pulled out of poverty and entered the labour force reached more than 32 million.
The real problem this year was the decreasing incomes of migrant workers
“The real problem this year was the decreasing incomes of migrant workers,” said Dang Guoying, a senior researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
He said the declining incomes of rural residents was more of a concern than them slipping back into poverty.
The country has 300 million rural migrant workers, who were particularly vulnerable to pandemic disruptions that debilitated the service industry in cities.
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Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform, a think tank connected to the provincial government, said providing “rural public welfare jobs” was an important way to prevent a return to poverty.
The NRRA said the rural residents it monitored had received subsidies, technical guidance and industrial services to help start agricultural businesses, while efforts were made to ensure children stayed at school and basic medical care and social security were available. Housing and safe drinking water were also provided to the group.
President Xi Jinping said during the rural work conference last week that increasing farmers’ incomes remained at the centre of the country’s agricultural and rural priorities.
“We must connect the assistance policies and measures for the poor population and poverty-stricken areas, and resolutely prevent the entire villages returning to poverty,” Xi said, according to Xinhua News Agency.
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