China's experience in poverty eradication, from targeted poverty alleviation to long-term rural development, could offer practical insights for other nations, said Han Jun, China's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
China announced a complete victory in eliminating absolute poverty in 2021, lifting nearly 100 million rural residents out of poverty. A five-year transition period was then put in place to consolidate those achievements, which has just concluded.
Han said in an interview with China Global Television Network that major measures were adopted to prevent large-scale poverty relapse, with sustainable outcomes achieved.
"The past five years served as a critical transition phase, linking poverty alleviation outcomes with rural revitalization. Throughout this period, we maintained overall stability in core support policies. We have successfully met all transition goals and firmly upheld the bottom line: no large-scale return to poverty. We established a nationwide monitoring and assistance system to identify households at risk of falling back into poverty. By the end of last year, we had provided timely support to over seven million monitored individuals, helping them eliminate such risks," he said.
Han said China's poverty reduction model has become one of the most internationally recognized, influential, and inspiring development experiences, offering Chinese solutions and wisdom to the world's anti-poverty efforts.
"President Xi Jinping said that if China can succeed, so can other developing countries. Our experience holds real relevance. First, we always put people at the center. Poverty alleviation, at its core, reflects how a nation treats its people. China elevated this mission to a matter of national will, strategy, and action. Second, we adhere strictly to a precision-targeted approach. President Xi pioneered the concept of 'targeted poverty alleviation', requiring accuracy in identifying beneficiaries, tailoring household-level measures, arranging projects, allocating funds, assigning personnel to villages, and evaluating outcomes," Han said.
Han said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will continue to support the long-term, sustainable growth of local industries to institutionalize poverty prevention and advance rural revitalization.
"Going forward, we will establish a regular mechanism to prevent returning to or falling into poverty, and incorporate such an assistance into the coordinated implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. After the transition period, existing support policies will remain generally stable, while their implementation methods will be appropriately optimized and adjusted. The most critical task remains early detection, early intervention, and early assistance -- to promptly eliminate risks of returning to or falling into poverty. We will launch a full-chain industrial development program to help increase farmers’ incomes, guiding formerly impoverished areas to fully tap into their own local resources and focus on developing local specialty products and distinctive industries. We will also permanently uphold the bottom line of preventing large-scale return to or occurrence of poverty through a sound and comprehensive social security system," said the minister.
China's experience in poverty eradication to offer insights for other countries: minister
China's experience in poverty eradication to offer insights for other countries: minister
The stocks in Hong Kong edged down on Tuesday, while Japanese shares closed higher, said Timothy Pope, a market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN).
While Chinese mainland stocks closed higher on Tuesday, the first trading day after the nine-day Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, holiday, Hong Kong's stock market ended lower with the benchmark Hang Seng Index down 1.82 percent to close at 26,590.32 points.
On Monday, Hong Kong's stock market ended higher with the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 2.53 percent to close at 27,081.91 points. The analyst attributed the increase largely to the U.S. Supreme Court's tariff ruling, which said on Feb 20 that the U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs under a law meant for use in national emergencies are illegal.
"Hong Kong's market didn't have quite as long a holiday as we enjoyed the Chinese mainland and had its tariff ruling bump yesterday, when Hang Seng added almost 2.5 percent. Today though things slipped back. We saw the index down 1.8 percent, mirroring a pull-back on Wall Street overnight," said Pope.
The analyst pointed out that one of the most closely watched events on the bourse is a takeover by Panamanian authorities of two Panama Canal ports operated by Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison.
"One of the major movers was investment holding company CK Hutchison, which had all those port contracts along the Panama Canal, until they were ruled to be in violation of Panama's constitution by Panamanian courts. Two rival port contractors -- Maersk and MSC have taken over operations at the moment and CK Hutchison's subsidiary staff have been removed from those ports today under the threat of prosecution if they remain. This story is still far from over. CKH told the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today that the court-ordered takeover is unlawful and that the company is considering legal action both within the Panama and internationally as well. The ruling was made at the end of January, as it said, but was only fully officially published on Monday. The Hong Kong government has also weighed in on this, issuing a statement, saying that Panama should respect the spirit of business deals and commit to making the country a fair business environment. CKH shares were down 2.7 percent today," said Pope.
As for Japan, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended up 495.39 points, or 0.87 percent, from Friday at 57,321.09. The broader Topix index finished 7.50 points, or 0.20 percent, higher at 3,815.98.
The analyst attributed the increases largely to optimism on huge investment opportunities generated from Nvidia's reported plan to invest in OpenAI.
"Over in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose after a long weekend in Japan, adding 0.9 percent. A lot of that was on boosted tech investment hopes. The major fuel for those gains are reports of a potential investment by Nvidia into OpenAI. Reuters has reported that the chip maker and the AI developer are close to agreeing terms for a 30-billion U.S. dollar deal. This would almost certainly mean more data centers on which to train AI models and more chips to be made, all of which need Japanese tech. Some of the biggest companies on the Nikkei are tech infrastructure providers like chip testing equipment makers and fiber optic cable manufacturers. One of the latter -- Furukawa Electric, rose 15 percent today," said Pope.
The analyst noted that shares of Japanese arms makers dipped.
"Elsewhere on the Japanese markets we saw defense-linked stocks fall. That came after the Chinese government published an export control list that is aimed at slowing what it called Japan's re-militarization," said Pope.
Hong Kong stocks slip, Japanese shares end higher on Monday
