The key to targeted poverty alleviation lies in doing the mass work well

Poverty alleviation and development is part of mass work. It is necessary both to solve the most pressing practical problems of the peasant masses and to attach importance to emotional support, giving impoverished people more humanistic care.

At the 2015 Central Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Development, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed the need to value and give play to the pioneering spirit of the broad ranks of grassroots cadres and masses, to fire their enthusiasm and spur them into action, and to change the face of poverty and backwardness through hard work. It is necessary to mobilize the forces of the whole society to participate extensively in the cause of poverty alleviation. These important assertions have important practical guiding significance for doing mass work well and for targeted poverty alleviation.

In early 2012, Gansu Province combined poverty alleviation and development with mass work and put forward the "linked villages, linked households, serving the people and enriching the people" action, whose main content was units linking with poor villages and cadres linking with particularly poor households. Over the past nearly 5 years, this action has developed from mainly involving government organs and cadres to extensive participation by private enterprises and compassionate individuals in society, and from mainly intra-provincial assistance to bringing in forces from outside the province, forming a work pattern in which people from all walks of life inside and outside the province participate, with four levels - province, city, county and township - working in coordination and advancing it on a regular basis. It has produced a superimposed effect of raising the level of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, achieving results in poverty alleviation, transforming cadres' work style and delivering real benefits to farmers, driving tremendous changes in the face of rural areas, and winning affirmation from the broad ranks of cadres and masses and from all sectors of society.

However, some deviations emerged in the course of advancing the work. Some units and cadres focused their main energy on things that could produce immediate results, such as promoting development and solving difficulties, and paid insufficient attention to and did not do enough on "slow, painstaking work" such as connecting with the masses, explaining policies and easing emotions. Their grasp of village conditions and public opinion, especially the ideological dynamics of the masses, was not deep enough, and they did not do well enough in helping people with special difficulties solve problems and get through hard times. This discounted the results of poverty alleviation and development. Poverty alleviation and development is part of mass work, and the two are unified in the people-centered development philosophy. It is necessary both to implement targeted poverty alleviation so that they have a sense of gain and to do mass work well so that they have a sense of satisfaction.

Therefore, in making decisions and implementing them, we must uphold the mass viewpoint, stand firmly on the side of the masses and give play to the strength of the masses. We must not only focus on solving the major matters and difficult problems that concern the whole village, but also consider the specific difficulties and problems of each household; we must not only focus on solving the practical difficulties in farmers' production and life, but also pay attention to explaining policies, easing emotions and resolving disputes. Every unit and cadre must learn to carry out work in light of local conditions and must not use the excuse that their unit controls no money, controls no goods or is unfamiliar with rural work.

Rural work involves a myriad of tasks, and the key is to solve the most pressing practical problems of the peasant masses. What they care about most is the delivery of rural subsistence allowances, subsidies for renovating dilapidated houses and other household-level policies. The focus and focal point of benefit-the-people policies should be placed on low-income people and people in extreme poverty, and limited fiscal funds should be used where they are most needed and on bottom-line policies, doing more to provide timely help. In advancing targeted poverty alleviation policies, we must fight with a coordinated combination of measures, give priority to solving prominent difficulties and problems closely related to farmers' production and life, make the determination of who is lifted out of poverty and who falls back into poverty transparent, and make rural subsistence allowances fair and just. We must both follow procedures and make comprehensive judgments, so that the sunshine of public finance shines on the people who are truly in difficulty.

The way to bring peace to the people lies in perceiving their hardships. It is necessary to attach importance to emotional support and give impoverished people more humanistic care. We should gain a comprehensive understanding of the demands and wishes of farmers, especially those in difficulty, classify and assess the problems farmers report and that are discovered, distinguish the nature of the problems and their urgency and importance, and put forward targeted solutions and opinions. Cadres at all levels should pair up with impoverished people, maintain contact continuously and without interruption, grasp their ideological dynamics, and give them caring attention and emotional support full of human warmth, so as to prevent negative emotions from accumulating over time and leading to extreme incidents. We should pay more attention to farmers' spiritual life, guide them to develop healthy and civilized ways of life and habits of behavior, and make farmers' spiritual life rich, their mood joyful and their family and neighborhood relations harmonious.

We must not forget our original aspiration. With the will and determination of "we will not return until we have broken through Loulan," we must throw ourselves into the cause of poverty alleviation with feeling and passion, do mass work well, and enable the broad peasant masses not only to have a basically comfortable life but also to understand how good days come about, promoting harmony and stability in rural society through happy and fulfilling lives.