During an inspection tour in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, President Xi Jinping on Monday visited a village to learn about efforts to advance poverty alleviation.

The village of Hongde, which Xi visited, has a population of 7,013. It shook off poverty in 2019 through the development of farming and husbandry while providing training to locals to help them secure skilled jobs outside the village. 

Xi Jinping learns about efforts to advance poverty alleviation in Hongde village, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 8, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

In the village, he visited a cardboard packaging workshop, which was built with assistance from East China’s Fujian Province. 

Pairing aids initiated by Xi

A mechanism of pairing assistance between Fujian and Ningxia was established in May 1996, when Xi was a senior official in Fujian Province and took charge of the province’s pairing assistance to less-developed Ningxia.

Xi Jinping (5th from right) attends a meeting on pairing assistance between Fujian and Ningxia when he worked in Fujian Province in November 1996. (Photo: Xinhua)

Despite being thousands of miles apart, the two regions helped each other in industry, expertise and technologies and pursued common development goals, setting an example for China’s East-West pairing-off cooperation and regional development.

‘Relocation village’

In April 1997, Xi came to the poor areas in Ningxia for an inspection. After spending six days there, he was shocked to see the plight of local residents in Xihaigu, one of the most impoverished area on the loess plateau of southern Ningxia. The mountainous terrain and persistent drought made the areas unfit for human habitation. 

Xi learns about irrigation at Longde County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, April 1997. (Photo: Xinhua)

In order to solve the problem, resettlement of the residents of the inhospitable regions as a whole was implemented under the pairing-off mechanism.

In July that year, construction of a new village with assistance from Fujian began in the east side of the Helan Mountains. Under Xi’s proposal, the village was named Minning (Fujian-Ningxia). On the day of the groundbreaking, Xi sent a congratulatory letter.

The villagers finally moved out of the arid and impoverished mountainous area, and were able to shake off poverty and make a decent living.

It was during that period when Xi promoted the formation of a systematic mechanism of pairing-off cooperation between Fujian and Ningxia, setting the direction for later efforts.  

Xi learns about local conditions at Longde county, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, April 1997. (Photo: Xinhua)

Earth-shaking changes

In April 2008 and July 2016, Xi revisited Ningxia and was pleased to see the enormous changes in the region. Before leaving, he promised the villagers that he would return when life got better.

This time, he returned to Ningxia again. Life in the Hongde village has greatly improved, showcasing the achievements of Ningxia’s fight against poverty and the pairing-off assistance between Fujian and Ningxia.

Xi Jinping visits Hongde village, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 8, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

The pairing-off assistance mechanism has generated fruitful outcomes. In the past 24 years, Fujian sent 185 officials and over 2,000 specialists to Ningxia. Over 5,600 Fujian enterprises and 80,000 Fujian businessmen invested in Ningxia. 

Ningxia sent 325 officials to Fujian to assume temporary posts for personal training and development. In addition, 83,000 Ningxia people worked in Fujian and set up over 1,000 enterprises there.

In the past 24 years, Fujian has assisted Ningxia with more than 2.6 billion yuan ($367 million) in aid, supported poverty reduction in impoverished areas, helped build more than 4,000 projects, aided over 2 million people shake off poverty, improved living standards of nearly 600,000 poor people and helped eight poor counties eradicate poverty.

(Compiled by Liu Xiaochi)