in China, the taboo of extreme poverty

Officially, extreme poverty has disappeared since 2020 in China. But in reality, part of the population continues to live in very precarious conditions, particularly in the countryside.

Has the Chinese regime really, as it claims, eradicated extreme poverty? According to the official speech, extreme poverty has disappeared since 2020, thanks to enormous work carried out since the beginning of the 2010s. Certainly, the standard of living of the Chinese has very clearly improved, but in the country champion of the news technologies, a part of the population continues to live in very precarious conditions, particularly in the countryside.

In the north of the country, Gansu is one of the poorest Chinese provinces. In one of its villages, between two blocks of houses, the sounds of digging break the silence. With her back bent, a 72-year-old woman is working in a field with her husband. “I have to work, to be able to buy food. I do weeding in the fields. If the vegetables grow well, I earn more. If the vegetable harvest is not good, I earn less. I work like that for a few months I earn a few pennies, but not much.she says.

Three euros per day

Officially his village has emerged from poverty four years ago. Government aid has made it possible to improve the daily lives of residents, but today, there are no more subsidies and in this very arid mid-mountain sector, living conditions remain precarious. The region is crossed by a major national road which leads to the provincial capital Lanzhou, but this brings little activity for local populations.

On the side of the road, a few businesses are set up. “We live off the land, but it’s difficult. I plant potatoes and corn, but it’s very dry. And the price of corn is low at the moment. I also have this grocery store, but it’s not is not enough to live on. There are many poor families here. testifies a man who divides his activities between his very small grocery store and agriculture.

“Officially we are out of poverty but in fact we are poor”

A resident

at franceinfo

Her 68-year-old neighbor lives on a little more than three euros a day. Half-heartedly, she also dares to question the official discourse on the eradication of extreme poverty, a major priority of President Xi Jinping. “There are families poorer than me who receive the subsidies. I don’t. Poor families are classified into different levels, the first level for those who earn more than 12 euros per month per person, the second level , more than 9 euros per month and the third level 6 euros But we are not out of poverty It’s still hard. Income is low, cereals don’t grow in the fields. gave subsidies to all families, so we could get out of poverty”she judges.

Need for grants

A few kilometers away, another peasant village where a couple approaching 70 years old raises a few sheep to survive.

“If I didn’t have these sheep, I wouldn’t have any financial resources. It allows me to buy medicine if I have minor illnesses, like migraine or fever. It also allows me to pay the costs electricity, and fertilizers, but it’s not enough to eat.”

A farmer from Gansu province

at franceinfo

“People say we are out of poverty, but I can no longer work, I am old. I wish the government would give us help”, he explains. In this village, we are far from the large Chinese factories that export all over the world. But in these countryside too, the slowdown in the economy since Covid is being felt.

And difficult to count on pensions. These farmers generally receive very small pensions which may, in certain cases, not exceed 113 yuan per person per month, the equivalent of 14 euros.