Striving for victory on two fronts

On Friday, President Xi Jinping called for resolute efforts to overcome the impacts of the novel coronavirus outbreak to secure a complete victory in the fight against poverty.

Xi said the main tasks are mobilizing all resources to fight the epidemic and to ensure that the target of eradicating poverty is met as planned so as to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

The country's poverty alleviation tasks are near completion, as the number of impoverished people fell to 5.51 million at the end of 2019 from 98.99 million at the end of 2012. The poverty headcount ratio dropped to 0.6 percent from 10.2 percent during that period, with regional overall poverty being basically eradicated.

Xi's speech has injected strong confidence and power into the great cause of poverty elimination.

"Being lifted out of poverty is not an end in itself but the starting point of a new life and a new pursuit," Xi said, stressing the need to synchronize poverty alleviation with rural vitalization.

There is no time for complacency, as the population still living in poverty are the most difficult to be lifted out of their current state, as their poverty is invariably caused by reasons such as their remoteness and lack of skills.

The epidemic caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak, the toughest public health challenge the country has seen in the past seven decades, has unavoidably affected the poverty relief efforts, as it has brought the country to a virtual standstill for nearly one and a half months.

The resumption of industrial production and business operations will provide the poverty-affected population with more jobs, and help to promote consumption that will boost the sales of agricultural produces.

The grassroots civil servants and Communist Party of China cadres involved in the anti-poverty war, who are also probably fighting on the front line in the war against the epidemic, must be mobilized and their confidence consolidated so that the twin tasks of poverty alleviation and defeating the virus can be achieved.