Days after Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China has secured a "complete victory" in its fight against poverty, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday congratulated him and his government for the "momentous achievement."
Xi made the announcement on Thursday while addressing a grand gathering held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to mark the nation's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honour model poverty fighters.
"With absolute poverty eliminated, China has created another miracle that will go down in history," Xi said in a televised speech.
"I want to congratulate President Xi Jinping & the Chinese govt for the momentous achievement of eradicating extreme poverty in their country," the premier wrote on his official Twitter handle tonight.
Read more: ‘Human miracle’: China celebrates ‘complete victory’ over poverty
He said that never before in history have 750 million people been taken out of extreme poverty in a span of 35 years.
"For developing countries like Pakistan there are lessons to be learnt. With determination and commitment we can do the same for our people," he said in another tweet.
I want to congratulate President Xi Jinping & the Chinese govt for the momentous achievement of eradicating extreme poverty in their country. Never before in history have 750 million people been taken out of extreme poverty in a span of 35 years.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) February 28, 2021
A miracle
Under Xi's leadership, China launched a monumental anti-poverty campaign on a scale unseen anywhere in the world.
Over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. All 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages have also been removed from the poverty list.
The country has met the poverty eradication target set out in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.
Also read: The state’s role in alleviating poverty
Combined with poverty-reduction results since the late 1970s, China is responsible for over 70 percent of the global reduction in poverty over the period, World Bank statistics have shown.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged the success of China's anti-poverty campaign over the past few years, calling it "the most important contribution" to the global poverty reduction cause.
"No country has been able to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in such a short time," Xi said.
Rural vitalisation
Building on its victory in eradicating poverty, China is moving on to push for higher-level development in its rural areas.
Shaking off poverty is not the finish line, but the starting point of a new life and new endeavour, Xi said in the speech, demanding efforts to consolidate poverty alleviation achievements and initiate a dovetailing drive of "rural vitalisation."
The rural vitalisation strategy was proposed as a key move for the development of a modernized economy at the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017.
More detailed plans of the strategy were unveiled in the Party leadership's proposals for formulating an economic and social development plan for the 2021-2025 period and long-term goals through the year 2035.
China on Thursday inaugurated a new cabinet body on promoting rural vitalisation, which was transformed from the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development.
In his speech, Xi said efforts must be made to prevent any large-scale relapse into poverty, and identifying solutions to problems concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers must be the top priority of the Party's work.
"China will attach greater importance to the pursuit of common prosperity," he said.
(With additional input from Xinhua)
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