October 17 is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty defined by the UN. On October 14, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences would be awarded to three economists, namely, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, in recognition of their outstanding contributions in the study of global poverty reduction. Göran Hansson, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, explained at a press conference that the prize was offered to them in recognition of their “commitment to reducing global poverty through experimental approaches”, and their study has “greatly strengthened our ability of combating global poverty”. In fact, over the past few decades, China’s poverty reduction has made even greater achievements in the world. The absolute poverty-stricken population in China’s rural areas decreased from 770 million in 1978 to 16.6 million at the end of 2018, with poverty incidence dropping to 1.7%. The absolute poverty-stricken population in the world has dropped from 40% to 10%, with China being the main contributor. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highly praised China’s poverty alleviation cause, “China has made the greatest contribution to global poverty reduction in the past decade”. So why is China making such great achievements in poverty reduction? How should we consolidate poverty reduction achievements and prevent emerging poverty after the entire population in China is lifted out of poverty by 2020? Professor Liu Zhibiao, Dean of Yangtze IDEI, held professional and in-depth discussions with experts and scholars on those issues.
