评论 | 中国为什么能消除绝对贫困？

编者按: 中国为什么能消除绝对贫困？香港中文大学（深圳）全球与当代中国高等研究院院长郑永年指出，与西方脱贫由市场主导不同，中国扶贫由市场和政府一起发力。中国的制度优势使得政府可以实施“对口支持”等政策，而这一点在国外很难实现。以下为CGTN与郑永年采访的节选，观点为专家本人观点，并不代表CGTN立场。

Editor's note: What's behind China's success in eradicating absolute poverty? Zheng Yongnian, a professor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, believes that both the market and the government have contributed to this outcome. China's political system has also made policies such as partnered assistance programs possible. The following contains excerpts from the transcript of CGTN's interview with Zheng. They reflect the expert's views, and not necessarily those of CGTN.

CGTN：中国在2020年消除了绝对贫困。你认为中国脱贫成功的原因是什么？其现实意义是什么？

China has eradicated extreme rural poverty this year. What is the significance of this achievement and what do you think is the reason behind China's success?

郑永年：我是觉得如果概括说的我们脱贫的成功就是政府跟市场一起发力，政府跟市场两条腿走路，那么扶贫在西方基本上是一个市场（起作用），政府只是说福利社会。 

I think we can attribute it to the fact that both the government and the market have played a role in this process. In the West, market force is the main driver of poverty reduction, although governments also try to build a welfare state.

总体来说，我是觉得中国政府的体制，政府的作用很大。我觉得我国的优势制度优势非常明显。 

In general, I think in the Chinese political system, the government plays a big role. Moreover, China clearly has strong institutional advantages (that have made absolute poverty eradication possible). 

这么假说我们扶贫有对口支持。对口支持我在世界上各个国家看了以后没有了，你很难说要美国的纽约州去帮扶阿拉巴马（州），假设另外一个州，不可能的。你很难想象叫印度的一个邦去帮助另外一个邦，不可能。 

For example, we were able to pair an underdeveloped place with an economically more advanced one and ask the latter to help the former. This approach cannot be found in other countries. You cannot imagine the New York state as a designated partner to help Alabama or any other state. It's also impossible to ask one state in India to help another.

所以我们这个制度优势也是有的，所以它综合一个系统性的，都不是说单一因素，单一因素这个决定的。

So, we have our institutional advantage. And we have more than one factor that has helped our poverty alleviation efforts, and these factors are systemic.

但是我们执政党很重要，因为它执政党就是说它的使命，像以前邓小平刚刚开始的时候，我们说上一部分人先富起来再走共同富裕，那么我们确实执政党确实是往这方面走的，是吧？那么中国为什么能做这个东西？就是还是执政党的理念，还是共同富裕的道路，还是很重要，对吧？

But the role of our ruling party is very important because the CPC has a mission, just as Deng Xiaoping pointed out, we should work towards common prosperity after allowing a part of the population to get rich first. That is exactly the path CPC has been on. So again how can China eradicate absolute poverty? It's because of the ruling party’s philosophy, the goal of common prosperity, right?

CGTN：你怎么看待中国精准扶贫的策略？这种策略的优势是什么？

What do you think of China's targeted poverty alleviation strategy? What are its advantages?

郑永年：我们也要意识到精准扶贫是从以前扶贫基础之上的一个扶贫，因为以前的我们扶贫大面积的贫困的时候，那个时候不能精准。那么前面一块很多人，你看我们说8亿多人口脱贫，前面表明已经有7亿人口已经脱贫了，如果有8亿人口贫困的时候，你怎么样精准？因为普遍的贫穷的时候没法精准。那么当7亿人口已经脱贫那种情况，还有说1亿人口贫困，我就精准扶贫，精准的贫困人口主要还是农村，主要有些贫困山区穷山恶水的地方可以做到精准，这是非常重要的。 

The "jingzhun poverty alleviation" approach is built upon our previous poverty alleviation efforts. When there was a large impoverished population, we could not use this strategy. You see, we would not have been able to lift all of the 800 million people out of poverty without the previous 700 million people already out of poverty. When you were initially dealing with 800 million people in poverty, you could not implement a "targeted" approach. It was impossible to be precise when there was widespread poverty. So, when 700 million people were lifted out of poverty, we could target our efforts on the 100 million people who were still poor. The impoverished people are mainly in rural and underdeveloped mountainous areas, and it is important to tailor our poverty alleviation efforts to their needs.

CGTN：你曾提出不要轻言扶贫胜利，因为扶贫没有终极的一天。那么接下来中国脱贫工作的重点应该是什么？ 

You once said that we should not claim victory in our battle against poverty because there is not an end point to alleviating poverty. So what should be our next focus?

郑永年：首先我们要意识到我们这次精准扶贫是消灭绝对贫困。我们的相对贫困还是很厉害的。贫困的标准也在变化的，包括我们自己国家贫困线的标准也是一直在变化的，与时俱进的，那么国际社会的贫困线也是变化的。 

First of all, we should be aware that the goal of our targeted poverty alleviation campaign has been to eliminate absolute poverty. However, relative poverty remains a real issue in China. The definition of poverty is also changing. For example, the poverty line drawn by China has been changing with the times. So, is the poverty line determined by the international community.

那么现在我是觉得下一阶段就是说你在消灭了绝对贫困的时候，你要慢慢，要把注意力注意到相对贫困，当然也要首先要注意的就是这些贫困人口是不是又会返贫，是吧？又会返贫。如果返贫了要重新重新重新反贫困。

I think at the next stage, when you've eliminated absolute poverty, you need to shift the focus to relative poverty. Of course, you also need to look out for those relapsing into poverty. Once that happens, you have to lift them out of poverty again.

现在五中全会十四五规划提出来要做大中产阶层，这是非常重要的。我们现在是4亿中产阶层。那么如果是我们经过10年，经过15年努力，我们有7亿的中产，那就是其他的贫困很更容易控制了，对吧？所以我们只能说我们精准扶贫取得了阶段性的胜利，并不是我们以后没有贫困了。 

Now the outline of China's 14th Five-Year Plan objectives adopted by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC proposes to grow China's middle class. This is very important. We now have 400 million middle class people. If we have a middle class of 700 million people after 10 to 15 years of development, then poverty will be easier to control, right? We can only claim a temporary victory in targeted poverty alleviation, not that we will have no more poverty in the future.

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