China makes huge contribution to global poverty reduction: President of EU Chamber in China

Since childhood, Joerg Wuttke, President of EU Chamber of Commerce in China, has been deeply fascinated by China for its profound cultural background. He is still impressed today by the streets of Beijing swamped by crowds of bicycles when he first visited China in 1982.

Aerial photo taken on April 28, 2020 shows a view of a poverty-relief relocation site for the Baiku Yao People in Nandan County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Cao Yiming)

In the following 39 years, Wuttke has been living in China and witnessed the huge changes. The livelihood of the Chinese people has taken a giant leap forward over the past decades, he told People’s Daily in a recent interview, adding that people are dressing more fashionably today and automobiles have become a primary tool of transportation.

In the past 100 years, the Communist Party of China (CPC) led the Chinese People to establish a new China, and has created a better life through ceaseless efforts, he said.

The remarkable progress China has achieved in infrastructure construction over the past years left a deep impression on Wuttke.

He told People’s Daily that in 1990s, it cost him 24 hours to get to a primary school at an altitude of 4,000 meters in Qinghai province from Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. When he visited this destination again in 2006, rugged roads were gone and what he saw was wide and flat expressways. It only took him five hours to get there.

In just decades, China has achieved what would be impossible in many countries regarding infrastructure, he noted.

After eight years of constant efforts, China has completed its poverty alleviation tasks on schedule by the end of the last year. In fact, China is about 15 to 20 percent of global population, and to solve the poverty problem is already a huge endeavor and a huge contribution, Wuttke told People’s Daily.

In the past, many rural residents would choose to work in cities, he said, adding that a large proportion of them have started to go back to their hometowns today as the rural environment and development are improved, he said.

China’s poverty alleviation not only profoundly changed the underdevelopment in rural regions, but also strongly promoted the integrated development of all social sectors, Wuttke said.

The EU Chamber of Commerce in China was established in 2000, and now has around 1,700 members, including European transnational corporations and medium-sized enterprises.

China’s measures, such as lowering threshold for foreign investors, shortening negative lists and the implementation of foreign investment law, have mirrored the country’s firm resolution to continuously deepen reform and expand opening up, Wuttke remarked.

Last year, the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic traumatized global economy, and impacted many of the members of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China. Wuttke said that China not only is an important consumption market for European enterprises, but also drives their innovation, adding that the member enterprises of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China will embrace more opportunities.

Wuttke holds that the care for the Chinese people is the secret to the CPC’s success. He said the international society is having an increasingly deeper understanding of China, and is urgently hoping to know more about the CPC’s philosophy of and innovation in national governance.

“This is not very common that a party lasts that long, and on top of it, in power,” he said, adding that he witnessed the economic miracle achieved by China under the leadership of the CPC and it was an honor for him to be a part of the process. Wuttke said he hopes the CPC can make more glorious achievements in the future, and wished a better life for the Chinese people.