Headline March 21, 2016/ CHINA'S REAL BATTLE : * POVERTY...& ..ELIMINATION *

CHINA'S REAL BATTLE : 

* POVERTY...& ..ELIMINATION *

JUST ABOUT 1/4TH OF MANKIND LIVES IN CHINA. yes, yes, just about one-fourth of mankind. So, as carefully as I can-

I pick the period around 1980s to get to the baseline. The research and solutions will help identify rather quickly, all the future progress right up to now.

At the famed Stone Forest in China's southwest province,of Yunnan, my guides had arranged for an evening of folk dances by the Sani, a local minority of the Yi race. 

It was the kind of  ''cultural event'' that had been regular fare for visitors to the People's Republic since United States China contact resumed in 1971.

But for me, in the spring of 1980, it served a special purpose. Before show time, I had walked to the Sani village where the peasants eyed me with apprehension and hostility. A coating of dust covered everything and everyone there. Skin disease was widespread.

Other than a light bulb in each dwelling, there seemed to be no difference between the poverty ridden village and the villages of southwest China a century ago.

The contrast between the neatly scrubbed, brightly clad Sani dancers and their squalid village mirrored the fundamental duality of China in 1980. In urban areas, the political, economic and technical elites are beginning to enjoy access to international travel and communications-

The computer revolution and other marvels of the current age. But in rural villages, where  80% of China's population lives,  the poverty, insularity and technological deprivations are staggering.

Then Vice-Premier Li Xiannian, China's leading economist, admitted that, despite the significant development of the country's agricultural sector over the past 30 years and the massive efforts devoted in assuring adequate nutrition for all, 100 million Chinese do not have enough to eat.

Government's statistics further delineate China's monumental problems. Only in 1979 did average yearly per capita rural incomes climb above $55. Average per capita urban housing space in 1980 was less than it was in 1949.

China's current economic problems stem in part from programs instituted by Mao Zedong during his 27 years of power. Although Mao had unified the country under communism, he was unable to strike the economic and social balance he wanted.

Finally, he 1966, the frustrated  leader told China's population to seize power from revisionist party members in his own name. He chose to neglect economic growth in favor of a new egalitarianism and political commitment in China's populace. The resulting Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution kept China in turmoil for a decade.

In 1978, two years after Mao's death, the government launched a program to modernize China's agriculture, industry, defense, and science and technology. Despite China's new look, the country's central dilemmas have remained the same: 

How can China protect its geographic integrity when industrial development has multiplied the strength of its adversaries and communication advances have shrunk distances? 

*And how can it accomplish the seismic risk of of lifting 970 million people out of poverty, making use of Western technology, without tearing apart its own society?* 

Additional problems confront the successors of Mao. Schisms between the generations and between urban and rural populations are apparently increasing. Whereas several years ago city people would speak highly of peasants in terms of their contribution to society-

Today some of the urban dwellers refer to the people as ''beasts of burden'' Many students evince undistinguished horror at the thought of being sent to the countryside for life. These divisions among the populace are paralleled by infighting within the Party, an organization of over 38 million members, many of whom were recruited during The Cultural Revolution.

The mass  ''political campaigns' of the 1960s involved half a million cases, where victims and their families were subjected to years of incarceration and torture. Despite later rehabilitation many people who now work in same office with those who had them purged refuse to speak to their former accusers or are seeking revenge.

To overcome China's deep rooted economic and social problems, Vice Chairman Deng Xiaoping, head of the current top party leadership is relying on the allure of *individual material gains to improve the standards of living*.

Also,  Deng and the colleagues are trying to transfer decision-making from high-level Beijing or regional bureaucrats to local officials whose communities will benefit directly from good decisions.

Within the industrial sector, party-appointed factory managers are being given more control. Attempts are also underway to reward factories that increase their profit ability by allowing them to keep a percentage of their profits.

In both wholesaling, retailing and agriculture, the market is being assigned to a greater role in determining  product mixes and quantities. 

So,  ''in 1980s'',   instead of following Mao's call to use grain as  ''the key link'' [in making each region economically self-sufficient], officials are encouraging the geographic areas better suited to forestry, animal husbandry, subsidiary farm products and fishery to specialize in these products.

This is sound economic theory, but will it wok in China? Transportation, for example, presents a problem. Regional economic specialization presumes an adequate transport network to sustain increased inter-regional trade.

But China, a country covering more than three million square miles, lacks such a network, and the resources needed to develop one quickly are insufficient.

The Honour and Serving of the  ''Economics and Poverty''  Operational Research continues. Thank You all for reading and sharing .

With respectful dedication all the Leaders of the world, Students, Professors and Teachers. See You all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society and the Ecosystem 2011.

''' Points To Ponder '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless