这是一份中国减贫成绩单 | 中国为什么能

曾经，有一个地处中国西南边陲的小镇，它的贫困发生率达到50%，全县101个村里有97个贫困村，深度贫困村88个。

这个小镇是兰坪县。

在中国2851个县中，像兰坪县这样的深度贫困县最多的时候有334个。1978年数据显示，当时中国9.63亿人口中，有7.7亿为贫困人口。

从1978年到2018年，中国的贫困发生率从97.5%下降至1.7%，贫困人口数量下降至1660万人。中国是怎么达成这样的减贫速度？

请点击上方视频，观看“中国为什么能”系列之“扶贫成就”篇。

Lanping Bai and Pumi Autonomous County, in southwest China's Yunnan Province, used to be one of the most impoverished regions in the country. Walking around villages in the county, one saw dilapidated houses with leaking roofs and bumpy dirt roads.

But by the end of 2018, residents in Lanping's rural areas saw their annual income increased from 4,406 yuan in 2014 to 6,515 yuan, an increase of more than 2,000 yuan in four years.

Lanping's transformation reflects the larger socio-economic changes that China has gone through — from an agrarian backwater into an industrial powerhouse. Due to rapid industrialization and persistent poverty alleviation efforts by the government, more than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty during China's reform and opening-up process.

From 1978 to 2018, the number of impoverished people dropped from 770 million to 16.6 million, and the poverty rate dropped from 97.5 percent to 1.7 percent.

脱贫，难

40年前，中国的贫困发生率能达到 97%，致贫原因复杂多样，贫困居民呈现出受教育程度低、健康水平低的“两低”现象。

此外，区域发展差异大，西部地区自然条件差，基础设施薄弱，脱贫难度艰巨。

"Forty years ago, China's poverty headcount ratio is about 97 percent," said Xu Jin, a professor at the China Institute for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture at China Agricultural University. "If we don't have this poverty reduction process, we cannot imagine (what China is like today)."

Poverty is most severe in China's geographic margins. The harsh natural conditions, absence of fertile land and lack of access to fresh water in some parts of China's western regions precluded any possibility of economic development through farming, not to mention industrial development. 

精准扶贫，加大力度

尽管过去的扶贫政策取得成效，但是因为某些措施“造血”功能不够，阶段性脱贫后重新返贫的人数也在增多。

2012年后，中国政府开始实施精准扶贫政策，针对不同原因进行部署尤其加大了对三区三州深度贫困地区的扶贫力度。

In the mountainous deep south or the rocky deep north, modernity barely left a trail.

This problem plagued Lanping as well. The county is prone to natural disasters and because the population was scattered around the county, the cost of infrastructure development would be too high. 

In response, the Chinese government introduced ecological migration in 2000, relocating people from lands distressed by a poor ecological environment to newly built residential communities on more fertile land. Residents in Lanping were relocated to modern apartment complexes with many of their consumer electronics provided free by the local government. 

这是脱贫史上的奇迹

1992年到2010年之间，中国成功减少了世界上贫困人口总数的70%，已经成为全球消除贫困的重要贡献者。

在2013年到2017年间，中国投入的扶贫财政专项资金已经达到300亿元，超过了过去30年的总和。

从2012年到2018年间，中国贫困人口减少了8000多万人，平均每年减贫1300多万人。

To address various causes of poverty, different measures must be combined to tackle its root causes, said Xu. The Chinese government has introduced six approaches to poverty alleviation: production, migration, ecological conservation, education, minimal allowances, and mass public participation.

In Lanping, apart from migration to more fertile land, residents also tried ecological conservation to promote tourism and boost local revenue. 

China vows to eliminate absolute poverty — living on less than 1 dollar a day — by the end of 2020. But achieving the last mile can be difficult since many of those left in poverty are afflicted by physical or mental ailments. 

To lift the last several million requires no less of an effort than helping the billions whose lives have now been transformed.