Beijing: Xi JinpingChina has lifted millions out of extreme poverty, sent a spacecraft to the Moon and committed itself to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
On the verge of securing a third term, the president can boast of many achievements in his first 10 years in power, although some have caveats.
Here AFP looks at some of the key progress made under Xi’s leadership:
Communist Party of China It prides itself on being “at the service of the people”, so Beijing’s 2020 announcement that it has brought an end to extreme poverty was hailed as an important milestone.
People’s living conditions, their livestock and access to education were among the factors that the authorities assessed door-to-door.
The government said it had invested 1.6 trillion yuan ($230 billion) between 2013 and 2021 to improve living standards – for example building roads, homes and infrastructure.
Lakhs of rural families have been shifted to villages with better economic opportunities.
a year later Xi became leader, 82 million Chinese people lived in extreme poverty, according to world Bank Information By 2019 this figure was six million.
However, Xi warned in 2020: “The task of consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation remains difficult.”
According to official data, the average disposable income per urban household grew by 66 percent from 2013 to 2020.
In the same period, it increased by 82 percent in rural households.
Cars per urban housing increased from 0.22 in 2012 to 0.45 in 2020, while the number of mobile phones increased from 2.17 to 2.49 per urban household in the same period.
However, housing costs have quadrupled, putting pressure on purchasing power.
According to Jean-Louis Rocca, an expert on Chinese social movements at Science Po in Paris, migrant workers – those who have moved from rural areas to cities for work – have increased their earnings significantly.
“But with rising rents, the cost of education and the need to wear fashionable clothes to fit in, their situation – which has improved in medium-sized cities – often stagnated or even declined in larger metros. It is,” said Rocca.
A source of national pride, China’s space program has bridged much of the gap with the US, Russia and Europe.
The rovers reached the Moon in 2013 and 2019 – the latter made soft landings on its far side.
Another later unmanned spacecraft returned to Earth in 2020 with the first lunar samples collected in four decades.
In the same year, the satellite navigation system Beidou was finalized, a rival to the American GPS.
After landing its first robot on Mars last year, China is expected to complete its space station in 2022.
According to the Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission, 11.3 million people were warned for discipline cases between 2012 and 2022, and 4.7 million for more serious misconduct, from civil servants to government ministers, army generals to bank managers. People were screened.
At least 1.5 million were punished, with the death penalty among the most extreme indictments.
Xi has imposed a culture of “frugality” – which means, for example, less lavish banquets for party officials.
While the campaign is popular with the public, critics say it is also a way for Xi to eliminate political rivals.
Beijing signed the Paris climate accord in 2016, and in 2020 Xi pledged that his country would reach its peak carbon emissions by 2030, and aim for carbon neutrality by 2060.
Environmental groups have called on China – the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases – to act fast, saying that otherwise it would not be possible to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
After decades of turning a blind eye to China’s suffocating cities, the environment ministry began publishing more comprehensive data on air pollution in 2012.
According to the ministry, the concentration of very fine and hazardous particles in the air dropped by 34.8 percent between 2015 and 2021.
A waste segregation plan is underway. For example, in megacity Shanghai, they are mandatory from 2019.
The length of the high-speed rail network has quadrupled, from about 9,300 km in 2012 to 40,000 km in 2021.
China now has 250 civilian airports, of which 82 have been built in the past decade, and air passenger traffic has doubled between 2012 and 2019.
Infrastructure projects have boosted travel and tourism, stimulated the economy, and opened up the less developed west of the country.
On the verge of securing a third term, the president can boast of many achievements in his first 10 years in power, although some have caveats.
Here AFP looks at some of the key progress made under Xi’s leadership:
Communist Party of China It prides itself on being “at the service of the people”, so Beijing’s 2020 announcement that it has brought an end to extreme poverty was hailed as an important milestone.
People’s living conditions, their livestock and access to education were among the factors that the authorities assessed door-to-door.
The government said it had invested 1.6 trillion yuan ($230 billion) between 2013 and 2021 to improve living standards – for example building roads, homes and infrastructure.
Lakhs of rural families have been shifted to villages with better economic opportunities.
a year later Xi became leader, 82 million Chinese people lived in extreme poverty, according to world Bank Information By 2019 this figure was six million.
However, Xi warned in 2020: “The task of consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation remains difficult.”
According to official data, the average disposable income per urban household grew by 66 percent from 2013 to 2020.
In the same period, it increased by 82 percent in rural households.
Cars per urban housing increased from 0.22 in 2012 to 0.45 in 2020, while the number of mobile phones increased from 2.17 to 2.49 per urban household in the same period.
However, housing costs have quadrupled, putting pressure on purchasing power.
According to Jean-Louis Rocca, an expert on Chinese social movements at Science Po in Paris, migrant workers – those who have moved from rural areas to cities for work – have increased their earnings significantly.
“But with rising rents, the cost of education and the need to wear fashionable clothes to fit in, their situation – which has improved in medium-sized cities – often stagnated or even declined in larger metros. It is,” said Rocca.
A source of national pride, China’s space program has bridged much of the gap with the US, Russia and Europe.
The rovers reached the Moon in 2013 and 2019 – the latter made soft landings on its far side.
Another later unmanned spacecraft returned to Earth in 2020 with the first lunar samples collected in four decades.
In the same year, the satellite navigation system Beidou was finalized, a rival to the American GPS.
After landing its first robot on Mars last year, China is expected to complete its space station in 2022.
According to the Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission, 11.3 million people were warned for discipline cases between 2012 and 2022, and 4.7 million for more serious misconduct, from civil servants to government ministers, army generals to bank managers. People were screened.
At least 1.5 million were punished, with the death penalty among the most extreme indictments.
Xi has imposed a culture of “frugality” – which means, for example, less lavish banquets for party officials.
While the campaign is popular with the public, critics say it is also a way for Xi to eliminate political rivals.
Beijing signed the Paris climate accord in 2016, and in 2020 Xi pledged that his country would reach its peak carbon emissions by 2030, and aim for carbon neutrality by 2060.
Environmental groups have called on China – the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases – to act fast, saying that otherwise it would not be possible to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
After decades of turning a blind eye to China’s suffocating cities, the environment ministry began publishing more comprehensive data on air pollution in 2012.
According to the ministry, the concentration of very fine and hazardous particles in the air dropped by 34.8 percent between 2015 and 2021.
A waste segregation plan is underway. For example, in megacity Shanghai, they are mandatory from 2019.
The length of the high-speed rail network has quadrupled, from about 9,300 km in 2012 to 40,000 km in 2021.
China now has 250 civilian airports, of which 82 have been built in the past decade, and air passenger traffic has doubled between 2012 and 2019.
Infrastructure projects have boosted travel and tourism, stimulated the economy, and opened up the less developed west of the country.