County officials share experience tackling poverty
CGTN's Wang Mengzhen
["china"]
Party secretaries from impoverished counties in China’s Henan, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces, came together at a State Council press conference in Beijing on Tuesday to detail their anti-poverty efforts and share best practices, as the anti-poverty campaign pushes forward with the goal of eradicating poverty within three years.
Huaxian County in central China's Henan Province has been among those who have best felt the effects of targeted poverty alleviation policies, which include relocation, special healthcare, the introduction of e-commerce as well as ecological protection as means to bring residents above the poverty line.
The county achieved this goal ahead of the national deadline in November, developing the photovoltaic and green finance industries. The county's party secretary Dong Lianghong described the anti-poverty battle as "bittersweet."
Dong Lianghong, second from the left,‍ shares thoughts on poverty alleviation with his counterparts on Tuesday./ CGTN Photo

Dong Lianghong, second from the left,‍ shares thoughts on poverty alleviation with his counterparts on Tuesday./ CGTN Photo

Meanwhile, Sha Wen, the party secretary of Sichuan's Butuo County, one of China's most impoverished, is learning from his counterparts.
"In the beginning of our precise poverty alleviation, our county-level officials, including myself, indeed had some misunderstandings of the real situation. In the past, officials sometimes failed to prioritize the real needs of our people.  But later on, we have gradually overcome these challenges so as to win the battle, " Sha said.
China is racing against the clock to lift 10 million rural residents out of poverty by 2020. In 2017, 3.4 million people were relocated from poverty-stricken areas.
In his New Year's speech this year, President Xi Jinping said that he has great confidence in winning the final phase of the war on poverty by 2020. "This will be the first time in thousands of years of Chinese history that extreme poverty has been eliminated," Xi said.