Nobel laureate economist Thomas J. Sargent has hailed China's poverty reduction drive as a global "miracle," saying the country's rapid development has not only lifted millions from hardship but created unprecedented opportunities for education and skilled work.
China met the United Nations' 2030 poverty reduction target a decade early, lifting more than 800 million people out of poverty, the largest reduction in history and over 70 percent of global alleviation.
Sargent, who was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, told China Media Group (CMG) on Friday that China's growth story is about more than statistics, it is about families gaining opportunities and other nations drawing lessons from the experience.
"The way I think is when economic development happens, I translate those numbers into a way about lives of people, and their daily lives, and the things they have access to. People are being lifted out of poverty, so if you think about what happened just in my lifetime in China, you can see that people who were lifted out of poverty, it's like the opportunities that you have, that you just never had to use your mind. It is just a miracle. So, those numbers are concealing that. I guess there are little countries that are kind of trying to copy China and lift themselves up," he said.
He cited the story of a PhD student from a rural family as an example of how development has transformed lives.
"But if you translate those numbers, they tell you like individual families -- kids are having opportunities they didn't have before, and the things that have moved me a lot about coming to China. I met a student. I talked to him. He's a student of one of my friends. He was getting a PhD in economics. He got it and he has a job now. His mother can't read. His mother can't understand. I mean, I'm sure she's proud of him. And he comes from a family where they didn't read. His sister knew how to read, comes from a little village. Think of how his life, just what's happened, I'm translating your numbers into what I see. Maybe that's going on in Thailand or something like that. It's just opportunities are being created," he said.
Speaking of China's modernization drive, Sargent said he was impressed with not only its modern buildings and infrastructure, but also the warmhearted Chinese people who volunteered to help elderly people like him.
"I've been in various cities like Shenzhen, Beijing. I've been in a whole bunch of cities, Hangzhou. I've been in airports. I was in one of the airports this morning and I was telling the friend who showed me this, I was saying this is a remarkably beautiful airport. He said this is the old airport. The physical structure, the beauty of the buildings impresses me a lot, but the people impress me more. First, they made the buildings so they created. Walk down the street, people are nice to me. I'm by myself in the Shenzhen airport and I'm walking through there. This old man's walking through there, and there are seven or eight people on the way between who asked me if they can help me, and they're kind," he said.
For Sargent, China's story is not only about skyscrapers and statistics, but about ordinary families whose lives have been transformed, a lesson he says the world is still learning.
Nobel laureate calls China’s poverty‑reduction drive, rapid development global "miracle"
