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by B.H. Padmasiri de Silva

China is the largest developing country in the world, its population making up about 22 percent of the earth's total. For quite a long-time in the past, China was a poor country for various reasons.

China’s policy of limiting its population growth to one child per family has helped in reducing its population. It has helped greatly in their poverty alleviation programmes. Minister R.A.D. Sirisena poses with a Chinese family in Henan Province.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and especially since the end of the 1970s, when China introduced the policy of reform and opening to the outside world, the Chinese government, while devoting considerable efforts to all-round economic and social development, has implemented nationwide a large-scale programme for development-oriented poverty relief in a planned and organised way.

With the main objective of helping poverty-stricken people to solve the problem of food and clothing, this programme has gone a long way towards alleviating poverty.

Between 1978 and 2000, the number of poverty-stricken people without enough to eat and wear in the rural areas decreased from 250 million to 30 million, and the proportion of poverty-stricken people in the total rural population dropped form 30.7 percent to about 3%.

The state has driven forward the solution of poverty in the rural poverty-stricken areas across the country through concentrated and effective aid to the impoverished counties. The state has explicitly demanded that all "aid-the-poor" funds must be used in the poverty-stricken counties.

In 1996, the Central Government further set the minimum proportion of supportive poverty relief funds (30-50 percent) for the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government were listed as the key poverty-stricken counties to be aided in the Seven-Year Priority Poverty Alleviation Programme, covering over 72 percent of the rural poor across the country. The series of policies and measures for development-oriented poverty relief work adopted by the Central Government in subsequent years were mainly centred on solving the problem of food and clothing of the people in the counties on the state priority list.

The primary rural organisations in China have an important role to play in mobilising and organising the people to participate in the development-oriented poverty reduction work aimed at reshaping their own destiny.

The Chinese government has stressed improving the rural organisations at the village level in its poverty reduction drive, in order to enhance the degree of self-organisation of the peasant households and guide them to bear an active part in the drive.

In the past year, the Chinese government has vigorously carried out the direct election system of villagers' committees in rural areas, so that people who are really supported by the masses and are able to lead them to shake off poverty can be elected as village cadres according to the principle of openness, fairness and justice.

At the same time, a policy has been strictly carried out, whereby village affairs, such as revenue and expenditure, the distribution and use of the poverty relief funds, and the conclusion and alteration of contracts are left open to the villagers for their examination and supervision.

The Chinese government encourages institutions of higher learning and scientific research institutes to promote advanced practical agro-techniques in poor areas, and has organised scientific and technological personnel and research institutions to teach in poor areas or promote agro-techniques poor townships or villages.

These measures have effectively changed the backward modes of production in these areas, increased the yield of farmland, and swiftly raised peasants' income. In the past 15 years, the Ministry of Science and Technology has sent, by turnstile count, 30,000 technicians to poor areas, implemented 580 model projects of aiding the poor with technology, set up 1,500 technological demonstration centres, solved over 200 key technological problems, and promoted over 2,000 suitable techniques in poor areas.

To speed up the pace of eliminating poverty in the Western region, China has adopted the idea of getting the more-developed provinces and municipalities in the East to support the development of their Western counterparts.

This scheme is carried out as follows: Beijing helps Inner Mongolia; Tianjin helps Gansu; Shangha helps Yunnan; Guangdon helps Guangxi; Jianagsu helps Shaazi; Zhejiang helps Sichuan; Shandong helps Xijjiang; Liaoning helps Qinghai; Fujian helps Ningxia and the cities of Dalian, Qingdao, Shenzhen and Ningbo help 'Guizhou. Based on the principles of "taking advantages of each other's strengths, mutual benefit, long-term co-operation and common development, "the co-operating parties have joined effort since all aspects and at multiple levels, including co-operation between enterprises, project aid, and personnel exchange.

Such co-operation between the Eastern and Western regions focuses on improving the production conditions and ecological environments in the poor areas as well as solving the food and clothing problem in these areas. Following the laws of the market economy, making full use of science and technology, and mobilising all social forces, various forms of economic co-operation have been conducted, while efforts are being made to realise more such co-operation.

In the recent year, nearly 2.14 billion Yuan-worth of donated funds and materials have been provided by the Governments of 13 provinces and municipalities and various social sectors in the East; 5,745 project agreements have been signed; investments of over 28 billion Yuan have been agreed upon, of which over four billion Yuan had already been invested; and 517,000 workers have been transferred from the poor areas.

The Eastern and Western regions have also co-operated in cadre exchange, personnel training, establishing schools, building basic farmland and highways, easing the shortage of drinking water for people and livestock, and so on. Since 1992, the State Education Commission and State Ethnic Affairs Commission have organised the more developed provinces and municipalities to support education work in the poor areas and areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, building or rebuilding 1,400 primary and secondary schools, helping nearly 40,000 children to go to school, and training 16,000 primary and secondary school teachers.

The World Bank was the first international body to cooperate with the Chinese government in aid-the poor work, and has made the largest investment so far. The three-stage aid the poor loan project jointly carried out by the World Bank and China in the Southwestern areas, the Qinling and a Daba mountain areas and the western region has involved a total of 610 million US dollars, covering nine provinces and autonomous regions, 91 poverty-stricken countries and over eight million poor people.

In July 1995, the Southwestern China- World Bank Loan Project started in the 35 state-designated poorest counties in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Of the total investment of 4.23 billion yuan, 247.5 million US dollars were in the form of loans from the World Bank; the Chinese Government provided a supporting fund of 2.18 billion yuan. This project mainly involved mega-agriculture, infrastructure, development of secondary and tertiary industries, labour service export, education, health care and poverty monitoring.

The project is expected to eventually solve the food and clothing problem of 3.5 million needy people. This inter-province, inter-industry comprehensive aid project is the largest of its kind in China, and one that has made use of the largest amount of foreign funds so far. Having progressed smoothly in its phase-out period.

In addition some other countries, international organizations and non-governmental organizations have also conducted a wide range of co-operation with Chin in aid-the-poor work. The United Nations Development Programme has carried out aid-the -poor projects in China. Other governments and organizations that have successfully carried out aid-the poor projects in China included the European Union, the governments and organizations that have successfully carried out aid-the poor projects in China include the European Union, the governments of Great Britain, the Netherlands and Japan, the German GTZ, the Asian Development Bank, the Ford Foundation, the CARE of Japan, the Japan Bank for International Co-operation, the World Vision International, and the Hong Kong Oxfam.

The disabled form a special social group needing help. Currently, there are over 60 million disabled in China, accounting for approximately five percent of the total population. Of them, 80 percent live in the rural areas, and a large number live in poverty due to their own disability and the influence of the external environment. It is estimated that in 1992 there were about 20 million impoverished, disabled people in China. Among the disabled poor in the rural areas, 30 percent lived in 592 State-designated impoverished countries. The Chinese Government has all along attached great importance to and shown concern about poverty alleviation for the disabled, and has adopted effective measures in this regard:

Poverty alleviation for the disabled is an important part of the state's poverty alleviation programme. The state makes unified arrangements to implement poverty alleviation work for the disabled. Both the outline of the work for the disabled in China during the eighth five-year plan period and the outline of the work for the disabled in China during the ninth five-year plan period approved by the Chinese government contain coordinated implementation schemes for poverty alleviation programs.

The state makes unified arrangements to implement poverty alleviation work for the disabled. The outline of the work for the disabled in China during the ninth five-year plan period approved by the Chinese government, contains coordinated implementation schemes for poverty alleviation for the disabled. In 1998, the state specially formulated the priority poverty alleviation program for the disabled (1998-2000) to ensure comprehensive arrangements for poverty alleviation for the disabled, fixing the objectives, tasks, methods, measures and policies for work in this connection. The local governments at various levels also give priority aid to the disabled, drawing up plans, implementing projects, ascertaining responsibilities, and providing energetic manpower, financial and material support.

The Chinese Government places great emphasis in helping rural women to shake off poverty. The Seven-Year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program of 1994 clearly stipulates that further efforts should be made to mobilize the women in the poverty-stricken areas to take an active part in the fight against poverty.

In the past year, led and encouraged by governments at all levels and organizations, concerned women in poor rural areas have taken an active part in the campaign of "learning culture and technology, and emulating each other in achievements and contributions." Numerous women have been taught to read and write, and some of them have undergone applied technology training and obtained the title of agrotechnician, and are now playing leading roles in developing productivity by reliance on science and technology in the poverty-stricken areas.

The biggest women's organization in China, the All-China Women's Federation, has helped 3.47 million impoverished women out of poverty and get rich by providing poverty alleviation services, conducting cultural and technological training, facilitating small-amount credit loans, organizing labour service transfer and mutual help, and initiating poverty alleviation projects specially for women.

The state has mobilized all non-governmental sectors to show concern for impoverished women and support social relief activities for women in poverty-stricken areas. Such activities as the Happiness Project to help impoverished mothers, the Spring Buds Program for supporting girl dropouts in poverty-stricken areas and the Cistern Project to aid women in the water-deficient areas of Western China, have played an active role in helping rural women to erase poverty quickly. By May 2000, some 145 million yuan had been put into the Happiness Project, helping 107, 472 people and indirectly benefiting 483,000 people. By July 2000, the Spring Buds Program had raised 330 million yuan to help 1.05 million girl dropouts return to school.

In conclusion it must be stressed that China has attempted to alleviate poverty in a scientific manner mobilizing the resources from all sectors including the international N.G.O's. The handouts given to needy in China are confined to those who are disabled and in dire need. Their main intention is to improve the infrastructure facilities and empower the poor to get themselves out of the poverty trap.

(The writer, Co-ordinating Secretary to the Minister of Samurdhi was a member of a delegation led by Minister R.A.D. Sirisena, Minister of Samurdhi who toured China to study their poverty alleviation programmes. The views expressed are his own.)

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