From JACK MWEWA, Beijing, China –
THE Communist Party of China (CPC), wants to improve the lives of more than 40 million Chinese living in poverty by 2020.
Tuo Zhen, the deputy head of publicity department of the CPC, which is the ruling party of the People’s Republic of China and who is also spokesperson for the 19th Congress of the party, said this here yesterday ahead of the meeting.
Mr Tuo said it was the CPC’s policy to lift the 43 million Chinese living in poverty out of the datum line in three years’ time.
“The Chinese government under the CPC has continued to strive improving the lives of 43 million Chinese currently living in poverty by 2020,” he said.
Mr Tuo was addressing 1,818 journalists covering the 19th Congress of the CPC which begun yesterday.
In addressing poverty, Mr Tuo said the Chinese government was implementing various strategies that had helped graduate one million Chinese from poverty each year since 2012.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is said to have held 17 meetings with government officials aimed at improving poverty reduction strategies.
Mr Tuo said President Xi had paid particular attention to ending poverty and sought updated and genuine information and figures on poverty reduction programmes.
He cited the aggressive anti-corruption campaign as one of those programmes that would result into poverty alleviation, warning that a lot of corrupt officials had been prosecuted.
“The Chinese government has continued to fight corruption under a no-restriction-zone, where corrupt individuals have been pursued at all levels,” Mr Tuo said.
He revealed that the Chinese government has begun the process of merging all anti-graft agencies into a national supervision commission to accelerate investigation and case handling.
The ongoing CPC Congress is also considering a draft political report to address research on special issues, amend the party constitution, elect leadership and prepare for a new central committee.