- China’s breathtaking economic ascent has helped hundreds of millions lift themselves from poverty since the 1980s but in 2016 at least 5.7% of its rural population still lived in poverty, according to a recent UN report, with that number rising to as much as 10% in some western regions and 12% among some ethnic minorities.
A recent propaganda report claimed hitting the 2020 target would represent “a step against poverty unprecedented in human history”. In his annual New Year address to the nation last week Xi made a “solemn pledge” to win his war on want. “Once made, a promise is as weighty as a thousand ounces of gold,” he said.
The current wave of anti-poverty relocations - a total 9.81 million people are set to be moved between 2016 and 2020 - are taking place across virtually the whole country, in 22 provinces. However, China’s western fringes, which still lag behind the prosperous east coast, are a particular focus.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/12/world/asia/china-beijing-migrants-eviction.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/world/asia/china-beijing-migrants.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/world/asia/china-beijing-migrants-tech.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/world/asia/beijing-china-reconstruction-hutong.html One of the Rationalists (Kaplan?) observed that China isn't a country of over a billion people. It's a thriving Western utopia of 300 million coastal cosmopolitans with all of sub-Saharan Africa attached to the inland side.
I wouldn't look at it that way - I mean, there's 1.4 billion people over there (give or take a couple-three hundred million because estimates vary) in the world's second-largest economy. 100 years ago they were effectively feudal; 50 years ago they were effectively communist. There's a lot to grapple with. And the Chinese do not fuck around when they do big social projects. The Great Leap Forward was barely 50 years ago and it killed like 10 million people; the Cultural Revolution was less than 50 years ago and it was pretty hardcore in and of itself.
Well, it's given me something to think about and I know that both The Guardian article and the NY Times articles you shared are two different issues. Now I worry if the relocating of the rural poor is being treated with the amount of sensitivity and compassion that I would like to hope it is. After all, we're talking about people's homes and communities, and even with the best execution and best of intentions there are gonna be mis steps. If not done carefully, a lot of people could be hurt. When China tackles projects, they tend to go balls to the wall in getting things done and they don't mess around. Which is impressive, but sometimes doesn't get the desired result. Sometimes you get massive cities and no one to live in them, other times you get a famine. Relocating over nine million people in a short amount of time is a big ass project, even if it is spread out among multiple provinces and communities. I hope the country doesn't lose sight of the human element here. I'm hopeful though, because over the past decade it does seem like China as a whole is starting to be concerned with running a fairer and fairer government. But then again, it feels like for every example that I can think of as a positive, I can find a negative too. So, I dunno. Re-reading that Guardian article though, now, it feels kind of like a propaganda piece and I feel foolish for getting excited about it without giving it more thought.
