China Has Done More Than Any Other Nation to Alleviate Poverty
by John Lawrence, August 31, 2019
According to the World Bank, more than 850 million people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty as China's poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 0.7 percent in 2015, as measured by the percentage of people living on the equivalent of US$1.90 or less per day in 2011 purchasing price parity terms. So Bernie Sanders brings up an inconvenient point when he says, "But what we have to say about China in fairness to China and it’s leadership is, if I’m not mistaken, they have made more progress in addressing extreme poverty than any country in the history of civilization, so they’ve done a lot of things for their people.” Oh how Fox News doesn't like someone bringing up an inconvenient fact about a country they're doing their level best to make into an adversary. Laura Ingraham made this comment: "It really shouldn't be all that surprising, I guess, that Bernie has a soft spot for the Chinese thugs. Socialism ultimately leads to more power for the state. And less power for you and your family." What she leaves out is the inconvenient truth that America, rather than alleviating poverty, has continued to increase it.
From 2016 to 2017, homelessness increased in America by 0.7 percent. The largest increases were among unaccompanied children and young adults (14.3 percent increase), individuals experiencing chronic homelessness (12.2 percent increase), and people experiencing unsheltered homelessness (9.4 percent increase). According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Annual Homeless Assessment Report, as of 2018 there were around 553,000 homeless people in the United States on a given night, or 0.17% of the population. So while China has made miraculous strides in decreasing poverty, the US has done nothing or next to nothing and homelessness which represents extreme poverty is increasing year after year.
In May 2019, The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) released its 2019 “State of Homelessness in America” report. NAEH’s interactive report allows users to explore national and state level data on the trends and progress toward ending homelessness in the United States. According to the report, homelessness has increased slightly by 0.3%, or 1,834 people, between 2017 and 2018 nationally. Approximately 552,830 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States on a single night in 2018 during the Point-in-Time (PIT) count. So while China makes gigantic strides in reducing poverty, the US, supposedly the world's richest nation, does little or nothing while poverty increases. But instead of focusing on a comparison of the two countries with respect to how much each has decreased poverty, Laura Ingraham instead criticizes Bernie Sanders for having the audacity to even bring up the subject puting the US in an unfavorable light with respect to China.
Maybe China is doing something right which, of course, Fox News is reluctant to admit. And while the US has made little progress in its "War on Poverty" since President Lyndon Johnson declared an ""unconditional war on poverty" 55 years ago, China lifted 850 million people out of poverty in 35 years! Not only is China’s success in reducing poverty without precedent, Beijing is best equipped to help reduce poverty globally – a fact that the Western media seems happy to skip over, preferring instead to criticise Beijing’s actions wherever possible. China is helping many other nations with its "Belt and Road" initiative. But the US sees China's alleviation of poverty and assistance in economic development in other parts of the world as a "threat" undercutting its own valiant efforts which have produced nothing but war and destruction.
China spent $250 billion on its military in 2018 while the US spent $649 billion, considerably more. How much did the US spend on economic development in other nations compared to China? China spent $460 billion in the five years since 2013 while in the US total spending was roughly $49 billion in 2016, the last full fiscal year analyzed. This accounts for about 1.2 percent of the federal budget. So while the US spends over twice as much as China on war, China spends about twice that of the US on foreign aid.
In the South China Morning Post, John F. Cooper writes in an opinion piece in April 2019:
China’s two government bodies reached decisions to alleviate rural poverty both at home and in developing countries. The sentiment was that China had done both before.
In fact, China’s accomplishments in these two realms are mind-boggling, having removed some 500 million to 700 million people from the poverty rolls. In fact, poverty in China has been cut to just a fraction of what it once was.
But China has not merely reduced poverty at home. The UN Millennium Development Goals project launched in 2000 was realized, UN officials said, with help from China’s generous, no-nonsense, market-oriented and unfettered foreign aid and investments.
According to the UN (recorded in its Sustainable Development Goals project), there are 783 million people living in poverty around the world.
The Western media has not cottoned to the fact that China had done a yeoman’s job in promoting economic growth by privatizing its economy and promoting competition, and has applied these principles to its foreign aid.
Liberals favor other means. Nor do they like Beijing’s undermining of the liberal, Western world order by proffering its own model of governance. Now, the media is unhappy that China can help the world’s poor when the West can do little.
Recently, Italy formally became the first G7 country to join China’s monumental Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious effort to coordinate trillions of dollars of infrastructure investment across the regions of Africa, Europe and Asia historically bound by the Silk Road. Investment from China’s Cosco Shipping rescued Greece’s Piraeus port three years ago, turning it into one of Europe’s fastest growing. According to the German newspaper, Die Zeit, Piraeus will displace Hamburg as Europe’s third-busiest port this year.
We dare not say that China is outcompeting the US on the world stage with its approach to helping people around the world instead of bullying them. Of course Laura Ingraham and Fox News, Trump's propaganda arm, will never admit that nor will they ever admit that perhaps China's version of capitalism is superior to the US version. No, they will continue to set up the divide between the capitalist US and the socialist China. Bernie Sanders is a truth teller and that is something that can't be allowed to stand unchallenged by Fox News.
