How should the game of East-West poverty alleviation collaboration be played well?

There are still 50 million poor people across the country, and the goal of lifting all of them out of poverty must be achieved by 2020 - a few days ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping, while visiting the poor and asking about their hardships in Guyuan, Ningxia, expressed this concern. A few days later, in Yinchuan, he presided over a symposium on East-West poverty alleviation collaboration, gathering party secretaries from many provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in the east and west to deploy the next step of the fight against poverty around this "matter of greatest concern."

These provinces and cities attending the symposium had another special identity. In 1996, according to the "two overall situations" strategic concept proposed by Comrade Deng Xiaoping that those who become prosperous first help those who are still poor and ultimately achieve common prosperity, the central government made the major decision of "East-West poverty alleviation collaboration." Since then, Beijing and Inner Mongolia, Tianjin and Gansu, Shanghai and Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi, Fujian and Ningxia, Dalian, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Ningbo and Guizhou... began pairing up and joining hands. Over the past 20 years, the Party Central Committee has continuously intensified its work, organizing the eastern region to support the western region, and has formed a multi-level, multi-form, all-dimensional pattern of poverty alleviation collaboration and paired assistance.

It is therefore not hard to understand why this "East-West exchange," which carries a major mission, has attracted widespread attention. A scholar once had countless exchanges with officials and scholars from the World Bank and foreign anti-poverty research institutions. They praised China's poverty reduction achievements without end and showed strong interest in the "Chinese experience," especially the strategic decision of East-West paired assistance. In their view, this reflects the superiority of China's political system and management system, which Western countries find it hard to match. The scholar therefore commented: China's efforts for poverty reduction are in fact also providing a Chinese solution for humanity's exploration of a better social system. This is the most vivid "China story."

Indeed, the mission and responsibility of Chinese Communists toward "poverty alleviation," and the promise that "no poor area and no poor person will be left behind," are perhaps difficult for any country or political party to match. At the beginning of its founding, the Communist Party of China was determined to "seek happiness for the poor and suffering people"; after reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping declared firmly to the whole world: poverty is not socialism, common prosperity is the essence of socialism; 20 years ago, Xi Jinping, then deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee and also head of the Fujian provincial leading group for paired assistance to Ningxia, made a vow: Fujian-Ningxia paired poverty alleviation collaboration is a political task and must be resolutely completed. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the central government has raised the elimination of poverty to a new height.

However, declaring war on poverty is extremely difficult. In Ningxia, where this symposium was held, the main battlefield for poverty alleviation is Xihaigu, judged by the famous Qing dynasty general Zuo Zongtang as "the most barren under heaven," and loess and sandy land judged by United Nations officials 40 years ago as "unsuitable for human habitation." Harsh natural conditions, a fragile ecological environment, backward economic development, and deep-rooted poverty... To win this battle requires not only unwavering faith and determination, but also wisdom and capability.

The model of East-West poverty alleviation collaboration and paired assistance undoubtedly provides a "Chinese solution" for solving the poverty problem and demonstrates "Chinese wisdom." It is indeed as General Secretary Xi Jinping said, "In the world, only our Party and our country can do this, fully demonstrating our political advantage and institutional advantage."

Where are the advantages reflected? We might look at an example. Immediately after the central government assigned paired tasks, the eastern assisting provinces and cities took action at once and implemented them as political tasks. They set up special institutions, established joint conference systems, promoted county-city pairing, determined poverty alleviation projects, and selected and dispatched large numbers of officials. Over the past 20 years, the eastern provinces and cities provided a total of 13.27 billion yuan in financial assistance to the western recipient provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, helped build 21,500 kilometers of rural roads, and aided the construction of 1,690 health centers...

Are not such intensity and results exactly what is brought by the management system and working mechanism of "central coordination, provincial overall responsibility, city and county implementation, work reaching villages, poverty alleviation reaching households"? "Concentrating strength to accomplish major tasks" was once again demonstrated through East-West assistance measures, and the political responsibility and overall awareness from the central government to the local level also demonstrated the "poverty alleviation path with Chinese characteristics."

The significance of East-West poverty alleviation collaboration goes far beyond the economic and material level. When "Shanghai doctors" and "Beijing teachers" walked into remote mountainous areas in the west, and "Zhejiang bosses" and "Jiangsu engineers" were welcomed... using the strengths of the east to supplement the shortcomings of the west, using first-mover advantages to promote late-mover effects, and transforming "blood-transfusion poverty alleviation" into "blood-making poverty alleviation," it not only became an accelerator for narrowing the gap, but also activated the west's own internal momentum, spurring it to catch up and strive for "overtaking on the curve."

"Today the long cord is in hand, when will the gray dragon be bound?" 80 years ago, it was at Jiangtaibao in Xiji that the three armies of the Red Army's Long March met in victory. Now, Xi Jinping, who has visited Guyuan, Ningxia three times in 20 years to visit poor people, has personally seen Guyuan's development transformed beyond recognition, strengthening his confidence in winning the battle against poverty. Letting people across the country share in moderate prosperity in all respects is a "new Long March." With East-West poverty alleviation collaboration and more targeted and deeper measures for poverty alleviation, more people are equally full of confidence in this.