Absolute poverty can be ended only after rural areas are revitalized

Editor's Note: China is set to realize its target of eliminating absolute poverty by the end of this year. What are the factors behind China's imminent success? In the 11th of a series of commentaries, a senior journalist of China Daily tries to find the answers.

Now that China is close to eliminating absolute poverty in rural areas, one question is often asked: What are the future plans for rural areas?

One thing is certain, China will continue the poverty-alleviation work to ensure those who have struggled out of poverty do not slip back into it because of some natural disaster or a serious ailment in the family. The central government has already decided to continue the preferential policies and increase the special supportive funds for the poor families, and asked the officials sent to villages to help with the poverty-alleviation work to stay at their posts for the time being.

The government knows abolishing absolute poverty is the first step toward building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. It knows poor farmers, despite being lifted out of extreme poverty, remain a vulnerable group that needs continuous societal help. It also knows that poor villagers' future can't be separated from the overall development of rural areas.

In 2018, the central government released the 2018-22 National Rural Revitalization Strategy Plan detailing dozens of important requirements, from strengthening village governance to protecting farmlands and enforcing the law.

But to me, the document's focus on establishing industries in villages and towns is key to rural China's sustainable development and to ensure people don't slip into poverty.

In China, a rural household, depending on the number of its members, is given a plot to work on. But due to China's large population and limited cultivable land, rarely does a household get a plot bigger than half a hectare. And millions of farmers, after getting better-paying jobs in urban areas, have transferred their land-use rights to fellow villagers or investors who engage either in large-scale mechanized farming or set up factories on the plots.

A farmer who leases his or her plot to an investor, not only receives yearly dividends as a shareholder of a collective farm but can also earn wages by working on those farms. Or, he/she can give up farming altogether and work in a factory in the village or in a town.

On the other hand, small and medium-sized enterprises in the better-developed eastern coastal region, in response to the government policy, have been trying to shift their production units to the western inland region. By investing in the inland region, they will not only enjoy many preferential policies in terms of rentals and tax exemptions but can also reduce their labor costs (wages in the inland areas are usually 30-40 percent lower than in the coastal region).

Currently, two important transfers are taking place. In many places, up to half of the farmers have transferred their land-use rights to investors and thus are free to join a new profession. And part of the production capacity is shifting to the western region. But since the success of the move is not yet ensured, the central and local governments still have a lot to do to make the rural revitalization plan successful and permanently root out poverty from rural areas.

China has a population of 1.4 billion people, and experts say 350 million people, thanks to the use of new technologies and large-scale farming, are enough to run the agriculture sector. And to ensure the surplus rural laborers find employment elsewhere, the government has been encouraging them to find jobs in cities and settle down there. Statistics show that 200 million such labors are working in urban areas.

Yet for decades, even after working, paying taxes and buying medical insurance in cities, most of the migrant workers could not get an urban hukou (household registration) and thus couldn't enjoy many of the public services, including admitting their children to good government schools or buying a house in a big city. That's why the government is also urging cities－except mega-cities like Beijing and Shanghai that have a population of more than 20 million－to provide hukou for migrant workers on condition that they have a stable job there.

As a result, China's urban population has been increasing at a rate of about 1 percent a year during the past decade or so. That trend is likely to continue.

Only when China's vast rural area is revitalized and all the farmers have decent jobs, be it in a village or city, can rural poverty be eradicated once and for all.

kangbing@chinadaily.com.cn

The author is former deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily.