China Declares Saying in Fighting Extreme Poverty – NRK Urix – Foreign News & Documentaries

Over the course of five years, China has spent NOK 800 billion moving 9.6 million people from the harsh conditions of the countryside to new homes. The project is part of the Communist Party’s ambitious goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2020. This goal has been declared achieved.

Farmer Li Gaoquan (55) pulls the mirror out of a clay wall covered with newspapers. He wants to take him to his new apartment.

New life

The Chinese government is celebrating Li being one of the last in the country to emerge from extreme poverty.

The old house in Luowan village will be demolished. While Li carries his things with him, he digs diggers above the ground and flattens other clay houses.

– This is my hometown. It’s pretty hard for me that all of this is gone, Li tells NRK.

Farmers have clung to the dry, slippery slopes of the mountains, and have lived from day to day.

The young people in the family are sure to move into the new life an hour away, but Cork Li or his wife want to leave.

– I am fifty years old, but also previous generations have bid here. The house is pretty good there, Li says, her eyes watery.

press office

We meet the farmer on an official press trip, because China will show how the country has reached its ambitious goal.

“The relocation program is of great importance in the fight against poverty in our county,” said Tanchang County Governor Su Hao.

The new blocks that will house Li and the neighbors are an hour away. Not many jobs have been created in the area yet, but school and healthcare are getting closer here.

They take us to a family that moved two years ago. There are sacks of coal upstairs, they are not used to using gas, so they shoot old-fashioned.

The couple shows us their two bathrooms, three bedrooms, and a stove.

They have paid a symbolic sum, but the apartment is mostly a gift from the government.

– We could never, in our wildest dreams, have thought that we would have it so well, Yang Aimin and Li Xiexian say.

Not satisfied

Not everyone is equally happy.

Outside of an elaborate house in the village, we see a man who has not been introduced to us. We want to talk to him, and when the government representatives do the same, they get on the slippery slope.

– They have not given us a good house and we have not received the money. That is why we have not moved, says Li Aixue.

The government representative says that he does not understand what the money is, and that provokes the master.

– I warn you, today you should be careful with this issue, says the mayor of the new residential area, Wang Xinwen.

– Sure, I’m careful, as if I’m afraid, Li responds.

“Draumanes dal”

Inside the house, the teenage daughter tells that the roof of the new apartment has already fallen. Then they take her aside and one of the official envoys speaks to her.

– I’m just telling the truth, I heard you win.

The mother of the family also raises her voice.

– Those who are civil servants force us to move, but when they built the house they did not ask if we needed a lot of space. We are five or six people and then they only give us twenty square meters? Is it possible to live in it?

The village manager wants to speak to the team and tell us that the village will be a paradise for tourists. The project is called “draumanes dal”.

Farmers are paid to rent their parcels of land and get eight percent of the project surplus, in the division.

– 99 percent are happy and naked. For your one percent, it’s all about the little things. It is quite common for one in ten to be dissatisfied, says the village administrator, Yang Gaoxue.

Good air

The town has had a water shortage, but now three pools are being built. Some of the earthen houses are being restored, to give tourists an idea of ​​how people lived in the country.

– The landscape here is beautiful. The air is also very good. Tourism is also part of the fight against poverty, because it helps us develop our area, says Yang.

When they now have better living conditions, they will live on 12 crowns a day, while the World Bank says the limit for extreme poverty is 16 crowns.

Some have gotten jobs on the project. Li Gaoquan now works as a security guard. While you used to grow potatoes, in the future you will have to buy them in the store.

– Although the house is old and poor, I think it is sad to move, says Li.

In four decades, up to 850 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty in China. The authorities are now focusing their efforts on preventing people from slipping back into extreme poverty.