Beijing Youth Daily:

During his first inspection trip to rural areas after the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Fuping county in Hebei province, an old revolutionary base located in an impoverished mountainous area. There, he called for efforts from the whole Party and country to battle poverty. Now that the entirety of China, including Hebei province, has achieved the goals of the poverty elimination campaign, how will Hebei consolidate the results of poverty elimination and fully revitalize the countryside? Thank you.

Wang Dongfeng:

Thank you. I will answer this question.

After the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping left Beijing to pay a visit to Fuping county in Baoding city of Hebei province from Dec. 29 to 30, 2012. Fuping was the old revolutionary base area where General Nie Rongzhen waged guerrilla warfare decades ago. Although rich in red resources, the county featured huge mountains and deep ravines and residents suffered poor living and working conditions. General Secretary Xi Jinping braved the winter cold to visit this remote mountainous area, conducted an inspection tour to villages and rural households to identify the truly poor, and mobilized the whole Party and the whole country to win the battle against poverty in the new era. The CPC Hebei Provincial Committee, the provincial government, and the entire province have conscientiously implemented the important instructions laid out by General Secretary Xi Jinping and the policy decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee. Party secretaries at the five administrative levels of province, city, county, township, and village have worked together towards the same goal of poverty alleviation, with a special focus on poverty alleviation through spurring industrial growth, boosting employment, providing science and technology support, and relocation. Policies and measures have been fully implemented to realize the Two Assurances and Three Guarantees [referring to assurances of adequate food and clothing, and guarantees of access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing for impoverished rural residents]. By doing so, we have secured a sweeping victory in the final battle against poverty. Hebei has received good reviews for three consecutive years both in national poverty alleviation evaluations and in the assessment of the effectiveness of the collaboration on poverty alleviation between the eastern and western regions. The province has taken concrete actions to uphold the anti-poverty theory with Chinese characteristics put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping and contributed to the outstanding achievement of China's poverty alleviation.

The General Secretary pointed out that being lifted out the poverty is not an end in itself but the starting point of a new life and a new pursuit. We will stick to aligning our thoughts and actions with the General Secretary's important instructions and the CPC Central Committee's decisions and deployments, making solid efforts to dovetail the consolidation and extension of poverty alleviation achievements with comprehensive rural vitalization. A series of effective measures have been taken in this regard, and new progress has been made.

First, we will stay committed to consolidating the poverty alleviation achievements and preventing people from sinking back into poverty in large numbers. We are making efforts to take due responsibility for counties lifted out of poverty, meanwhile ensuring consistent poverty alleviation policies, assistance, and supervision. We are also working to ensure the consistency and stability of major supportive policies, and strengthening poverty reduction efforts on the industrial, employment, and sci-tech sides. Follow-up support will be provided to people relocated from inhospitable areas, in a bid to promote the sustainable development of formerly impoverished areas and increase people's income. Monitoring work has also been conducted to prevent poverty. A comprehensive monitoring network has been established. Among some 97,000 monitored subjects who have shaken off poverty, not a single household has sunk back into poverty again. In the meantime, a social assistance fund has been established across the province to help the impoverished population, those with ill family members, widows, widowers, orphans, and older people without children. A total of 240 million yuan of insurance assistance has been provided to some 34,000 households. 

Second, we are staying committed to promoting comprehensive rural vitalization and speeding up agriculture modernization. We have focused on 12 leading industries and 107 specialty industries in our province, and developed unique industries and products for each township and village. We addressed the industrial development and employment issues so that those lifted out of poverty are less likely to sink back into it again. We also launched a campaign featuring paired assistance between enterprises and villages, encouraging 13,000 private enterprises to support the development of over 10,000 villages, 7,746 of which were stricken by poverty. By doing so, we have established a normalized and long-term mechanism featuring joint contribution, shared benefits, and win-win cooperation. These enterprises don't simply offer direct financial support. More importantly, they help update local people's mindsets, offer intellectual support, boost employment, and utilize the area's land, tourism, and labor resources. A long-term and stable partnership has thus been established, and villagers' income is largely increased. In the first quarter of this year, the per capita disposable income of farmers in our province increased by 16.6%, the increment of which continues to be higher than that of urban residents. 

Third, we are staying committed to pursuing balanced development across rural and urban areas, continuously improving living and working conditions in rural regions. We concentrate our efforts on rural development and coordinate the work on improving the scale and quality of county seats. The CPC Hebei Provincial Committee and provincial government have conducted research and unveiled a plan to build 300 towns with distinctive features. In addition, over 1,000 projects on building "a beautiful countryside" are currently undergoing construction. In the meantime, measures have been taken to address the issue of "hollow villages" mainly existing in the Bashang area of Zhangjiakou city. The so-called "hollow villages" refer to villages with no labor force as all rural migrant workers have left home with their children, leaving only elderly villagers behind. These elderly people are not poor, and these villages are not categorized as impoverished, because these villagers are offered minimum living allowance for being incapable of working. Still, the living environment in the alpine Bashang area is quite harsh as the temperature can drop below minus 20 or 30 degrees Celsius in winter. It is actually more costly to relocate these elderly people to other regions than build infrastructure facilities concerning water, electricity, gas, and telecommunications in their original living environment. Therefore, we respected people's wishes and relocated them to the nearby regions of major counties. The majority of them have moved into apartment buildings as the government completed land acquisition. The relocated villagers have complete property rights to their apartments. If these elderly people want to live with their children in other cities, they can sell the apartment or just receive money compensations for relocation and then leave here. This not only helps foster family reunions, but also offers benefits to the general public. Thus, this policy has been widely welcomed by rural residents. All 1,073 "hollow villages" with a vacancy rate of over 50% completed relocation last year. There are still almost 1,000 "hollow villages" with vacancy rates ranging from 30% to 50%, and these will finish relocation this year. For "hollow villages" with a vacancy rate of less than 30%, we will respect villagers' wishes and comprehensively improve the rural infrastructure based on the standards of new countryside. Regarding the balanced development of rural and urban areas, we are working to improve infrastructure for rural residents and rural areas, including facilities concerning water, gas, electricity, roads, telecommunications, and waste treatment. There are 121 counties in our province. Plant that can safely incinerate waste and convert it to electricity is now available for every county or shared by two counties. This helps prevent underground water contamination and clean the air, providing important environmental support to build a new and beautiful countryside.

Fourth, we are staying committed to strengthening basic services in rural communities. We are working to comprehensively strengthen the Party's work at the community level, ensure that the Party's foundational work is carried out to proper effect, and improve the Party's basic working skills. Taking the opportunity of the election of new officials at the county and township levels and also at the village branch committees of the CPC and the villagers' committees, we have selected and appointed a group of fine young officials who are politically reliable and professional. A group of college graduates, veterans, and those who worked their way out of poverty have been appointed to serve as the Party secretaries in villages and become members of the village branch committees of the CPC and the villagers' committees. Around 49,700 out of nearly 50,000 villages in Hebei have elected new officials for the village branch committees of the CPC and the villagers' committees. The officials' age, education background, and other qualities have seen historic changes. Almost 99% of the village-level Party secretaries in Hebei also serve as the heads of the villagers' committees, so that the primary level Party committees are more cohesive and stronger. In addition, we have launched an annual campaign to promote Party building at the community level. We have allocated all sorts of resources to the community level and addressed their prominent issues. Party members' exemplary role has been given full play, and the Party's leadership is further strengthened to promote reform, development and stability in rural area. Tangible progress has been achieved in this regard. Thank you.