Chinese President Xi Jinping talks with local muslims at Xincheng Mosque in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, July 19, 2016. Xi made a three-day inspection tour in Ningxia.(Xinhua/Ju Peng)
President Xi Jinping was on the frontlines of the country's war against poverty this week in northwestern China.
This time, the battleground was Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, an under-developed area with a high concentration of ethnic minorities.
Ningxia has some 580,000 people that receive less than 2,300 yuan (about 345 U.S. dollars) in annual net income, according to latest figures. The number is considerably lower than a decade ago, when one million people in the autonomous region lived under the poverty line.
But the task to lift all out of poverty and build a "moderately prosperous society in an all-round way" by 2020 remains daunting.
During his Ningxia trip, Xi visited villages to inspect poverty alleviation work. He talked with villagers about their lives, and urged Communist Party of China (CPC) cadres to take the lead in poverty reduction.
In Guyuan City, one of the most impoverished localities in China, Xi visited the Yangling Village Monday.
"He came into my house, sat on my bed, and together with my folks in the village, we made plans to shake off our 'poverty hats,'" said villager Ma Kejun of the Hui ethnicity.
"He showed particular interests in how many cows I raised, how I feed them, and how much land I farm," Ma recalled. Xi's visit, he said, was more of one of belief than of relief.
China is striving to become a "Xiaokang," or a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way by 2020, just before the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.
One aim is to make sure that those yet to be lifted out of poverty join the well-off society with the rest of the nation.
In Xi's own words, "No one should be left behind."
"There are still some 50 million Chinese struggling with poverty, and by 2020, they must be all lifted out of poverty. This is my top concern now," Xi said during his Ningxia tour.
Poverty relief is indeed a priority on the policy agenda.
It is not difficult to fathom how much Chinese leaders are committed to the task. For four years in a row, Xi's lunar New Year inspection tours have involved him inspecting the country's poverty reduction efforts.
In March, Xi brought up poverty alleviation during the annual session of the National People's Congress with national lawmakers from the northwestern province of Qinghai.
Targeted measures should be taken and the role of education be emphasized in poverty relief to ensure the people will not return to poverty, he said during the session.
Infrastructure in ethnic regions will be improved and industries with local characteristics and competitive edges will be encouraged, to facilitate self-development, Xi said.
The country's 13th Five-Year Plan, which outlines priorities for national development from 2016 to 2020, also proposes support for poor villages to develop signature products and services.
In addition to self-sustaining development, China also encourages more-developed regions to form partnerships with less developed ones, to lend a hand with infrastructure and investment.
At a national conference this week on poverty alleviation through east-west cooperation in Ningxia's capital city Yinchuan, Xi urged developed regions in the east to help their partner regions in the west better fight poverty.
China has used the strategy for 20 years, and the widening gap between the east and west has been curbed, said the president, hailing "significant progress" in poverty alleviation in poor western areas and old revolutionary base areas.
"Cooperation between paired eastern and western regions in poverty alleviation must continue for a long time," said Xi at the meeting.
While in Ningxia, the president also inspected an incubator park, a cooperation between Ningxia and Zhejiang Province, which encourages enterprises to join poverty relief efforts in western China.
Xu Yaotong, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Governance, said Xi's visit schedules in recent years, including the one this week to Ningxia, are signaling the new leadership's governance focus on impoverished and underdeveloped regions.
"Xi is first and foremost concerned with 'Xiaokang' of all Chinese people," said Xu.
"If we compare China's development to a bucket and the amount of water a bucket can hold is determined by its shortest plank," Xu continued, adding that poverty is one of the short planks.
"To build a comprehensively 'Xiaokang' society, the country must fix those short, weak planks," Xu said.
