Lin Yifu: To Generalize China’s poverty reduction experience when telling China’s poverty reduction stories

     On January 17th, 2020, Dr. Tan Weiping, Deputy Director General of the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) led a delegation to visit Prof. Lin Yifu, senior consultant of IPRCC and Honorary Dean of National School of Development at Peking University. The two sides had an in-depth exchange of ideas on the way of better telling China’s stories and providing Chinese wisdom and solutions in the field of poverty alleviation. Prof. Lin spoke highly of the efforts made by IPRCC in international poverty alleviation cooperation and exchanges, and said that he would continue to support IPRCC in relevant activities including international poverty alleviation researches and exchanges.   

     Prof. Lin shared his thoughts on the way of better telling China’s poverty alleviation stories. The significance of eradicating poverty is evident from the fact that “No Poverty” is listed as Goal 1 in United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Different countries have different situations, thus China’s stories should be narrated in a vivid way, not only to win admiration, but also to help other countries gain similar achievements. We need to grasp the characteristic of the poor, that is, lacking in money yet rich in labor forces. This characteristic points to a research perspective of employment. We can analyze how the process of agricultural modernization and industrial development helps create jobs and alleviate poverty. Besides, we need to figure out the fundamentals of poverty reduction, and follow a train of thought of “particularity - generality - particularity”. We need to generalize China’s particular practices of poverty reduction, and combine the generalized ideas with different countries’ particular situations (namely the  particularity of different countries) in international poverty reduction exchanges. 

     Ms. Li Xin, Director of Foreign Affairs Division and colleagues from Research Division were present at the meeting.