There can be no doubt about the tremendous success of China’s poverty-alleviation efforts. The statistics speak a very clear language. Allow me to complement them with personal experience.
I vividly remember my first stay in China as a student in the spring of 1978. Living on the campus of Beijing Language and Culture University, a bicycle ride away from Tian’anmen Square, I witnessed a life fundamentally different from today’s. The campus was surrounded by old-style hutongs and unpaved lanes, creating an atmosphere of rural backwardness. There were no modern buildings, no modern sanitation, no cars—only a few buses and numerous donkey- and horse-drawn carts. Shops offered only a few products, and simple restaurants presented meals in a very basic manner.
Despite these conditions, I look back on those days fondly. I came from the German Democratic Republic to learn the Chinese language and become more familiar with Chinese life, and I was full of optimism. Being well-informed about the time before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and aware of the ups and downs in the following decades, I was not surprised by what I saw. Simultaneously, I was full of hope, as there were clear signs of change. After the reform and opening-up in 1978, along with the evolving domestic and international situation, the Communist Party of China continued to expand and deepen its focus on the “Four Modernizations.” Immersed in this atmosphere, I felt that my sympathy for the Chinese people helped me understand the situation better, and I became convinced that a path toward a better life would be found.
In 1987, I returned to China as a scientist working with Peking University and the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, and saw an improvement in the situation. But it was only a slow amelioration compared with the almost indescribable changes I witnessed in 2008 and 2011.
By then, Beijing had developed into a modern city with a remarkably high living standard, capable of competing with any capital around the world. The airports and flight traffic, high-speed trains, electric buses, supermarkets, schools and universities, cultural life, digitalization of daily life, modern streets, subways, cars, and the high level of hospitality all left a deep impression on me when I returned home. Visiting other major cities and rural areas confirmed the tremendous, astonishing changes that had taken place.
The fact that a country could overcome poverty and backwardness in just a few decades is historically unprecedented. And the development doesn’t stop. Friends who visit China more often than I do tell me that modernization has even accelerated in recent years.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
