Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered his 2022 New Year address on Friday, reviewing the country’s development achievements in 2021 and sought to build people’s confidence in advancing prosperity in the coming year. On China and the world, Xi highlighted the country’s contributions to making the world a better place.
Eliminating extreme poverty
“China’s realization of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and elimination of extreme poverty is what the Communist Party of China has delivered to our people, and it is also a contribution to the world,” Xi said in the address. In February 2021, he announced China’s accomplishments in extreme poverty eradication at a national conference. Around 800 million people in China have been lifted out of poverty since the country adopted reform and opening up in 1978, accounting for over 70 percent of global poverty reduction, according to the World Bank. “China’s achievements in poverty alleviation will inspire other developing countries to learn from its experience,” said Ding Yifan, senior fellow of the Institute of World Development at the Development Research Center of the State Council. Ding added that the country’s next step is to realize common prosperity, which means those lifted out of poverty will secure better incomes and enjoy better opportunities to develop. “We need to ensure that people can get more opportunities through more ways of making a living, like through e-commerce, so that they don’t have to migrate to megacities for jobs there,” said Zhou Mi, senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. Zhou also said that other mechanisms, for example commercial insurance, would also be necessary to reduce the risks of slipping back into poverty due to health care costs or natural disasters.
Fighting the pandemic
In his address, Xi said that China had provided two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations to date. To honor its promise of making the COVID-19 vaccine a global public good, China not only supplied and donated a large number of vaccines to foreign countries but also strove to expand joint production overseas, improve production speed and keep prices reasonable and affordable. Chinese vaccine companies have started joint production in 19 other countries. The United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Indonesia and Brazil were the first in their regions to produce Chinese COVID-19 vaccines. China has also provided medical supplies to over 150 countries and regions to help contain the pandemic, and Chinese medical expert teams have conducted about 1,000 technical guidance sessions in over 30 nations.
“China can provide vaccines and medical supplies for the world because China has a relatively complete industrial chain with which Chinese factories can build new production lines and speed up their production in a short time,” said Ding. Zhou said that China is helping the world accelerate economic recovery by contributing to pandemic control and management.
Getting ready for Beijing Winter Olympics
“We will spare no effort to present a great Games to the world,” Xi said, telling all that China is ready for the upcoming Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. From competition venues, support teams and volunteers to epidemic prevention and control measures, China’s measures in controlling the COVID-19 outbreak within its borders will continue to bring confidence ahead of the Winter Olympics in 2022.
“People may wonder whether China can control the epidemic well while embracing athletes from other countries, especially when the highly contagious Omicron variant is presenting a challenge now,” Zhou said. The Beijing Winter Olympics, he said, is an opportunity for athletes from all over the world to come and see by their own eyes, and better understand China’s rapid development since the 2008 Summer Olympics. It also helps people to communicate with and comfort each other during tough times. – CGTN
