CHINA TOPIX

04/24/2024 09:02:36 pm

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China Releases White Paper on Poverty Reduction, Human Rights Progress

 A cyclist rides past a public telephone booth in a poor slum area on January 2, 2005 in Beijing, China.

(Photo : Getty Images) A cyclist rides past a public telephone booth in a poor slum area on January 2, 2005 in Beijing, China.

China has issued a white paper on Monday commending the efforts and progress made in poverty reduction and human rights, state-backed Xinhua News reported.

Entitled "China's Progress in Poverty Reduction and Human Rights," the paper states that China has lifted at least 700 million people out of poverty over the past more than three decades since the launch of the reform and opening drive.

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Xinhua noted the UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2015, which reveals that the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in China drastically declined from 61 percent in 1990 to 4.2 percent in 2014.

In spite of the huge drop, China still has an estimated 55.75 million people living below poverty line by the end of last year.

Although the white paper said the solutions to their problems are becoming costly and complex, the country aims to raise all of its poor out of poverty by 2020, GBTimes reported. With the given time frame, China has committed to lift at least 10 million people out of poverty every year, which means it needs to develop specialty industries and create more jobs, relocation, and social security coverage.

 "This will prove a hard nut to crack," the paper said, referring to the country's effort to solve poverty in the future.

Meanwhile, the white paper also considered the possibility that a large chunk of those who were lifted from poverty would be pushed back on the line again because of natural disasters, illnesses, or other issues.

Between 2011 and 2015, China has allocated 189.84 billion yuan ($28.17 billion), with an average annual growth rate of 14.5 percent, according to the Shanghai Daily. It also plans to assign more funds to keep pace of its poverty relief target in the next five years.

Aside from the poverty alleviation achievement, the paper also emphasized the efforts made in building infrastructure and public services as well as protecting citizen's human rights.