Research Reports on the Elimination of Poverty in China - Lichuan County, Hubei Province

    An Chunying, Yang Zhenquan

Abstract

    Since the mid-1980s，Lichuan county has experienced four development stages，including“large-scale development-oriented poverty alleviation”“the Seven-Year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program”“poverty alleviation development in the new era”and“targeted poverty alleviation”，in order to explore the path of rapid economic and social development，and the improvement of people's wellbeing.Focusing on the“six precision”and“five batches”oriented approach in order to eliminate poverty，since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China，Lichuan Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have established systems and mechanisms for targeted poverty alleviation，issued a series of guidelines for targeted poverty alleviation and targeted poverty reduction.Comprehensive measures have been conducted with successful achievements，including improving infrastructure，developing special entity industries，strengthening the new economic growth point of home-stay tourism，exploring the e-commerce poverty alleviation model，tackling unemployment，using financial loans to improve financial stability，preventing poverty through education，improving medical services to protect health，combining ecological protection measures with poverty alleviation and development，relocating people in poverty to a good location to seek happiness，as well as providing basic social security for extremely poor people.From 2014 to 2019，a total of 219，119 people in Lichuan county were no longer living in destitution，with all 141 previously poverty-stricken villages no longer being classified as poor.The incidence of poverty decreased from 27.4% at the end of 2013 to 0.25% at the end of 2019.In April 2020，after internal examination at county level，preliminary examination at state level and third-party assessment at provincial level，with the announcement of the People's Government of Hubei Province to withdraw Lichuan from the list of poverty-stricken counties，the goal of tackling poverty in Lichuan county has been completed as scheduled.Adhering to the leadership of Chinese Communist Party，consolidating responsibilities，strengthening the construction of work style，increasing investment and support of poverty alleviation funds，sticking to the project initiative and wisdom，promoting the industry according to local conditions，strengthening the village-level collective economy，and building a“trinity”pattern of joint society poverty alleviation are valuable experiences that have been gained through Lichuan's targeted poverty alleviation and reduction project.While poverty alleviation has been transformed from an extraordinarily“tough battle”into a normal“protracted war”，Lichuan county continues to explore the road to sustainability of the“post-2020 upgraded version”.

Key Words

    Targeted Poverty Alleviation；Policy System；Lichuan County；Professional Poverty Alleviation；Poverty Alleviation in the Field；Social Poverty Alleviation；Experience Sharing