Top political advisor highlights democratic supervision on poverty alleviation

BEIJING -- China's top political advisor Wang Yang called on the non-communist parties to take full advantage of their function of democratic supervision to promote poverty alleviation.

Wang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks at a symposium with the central committees of democratic parties on Friday.

While highly appreciating progress, Wang said he hopes democratic supervision could focus on issues such as poverty relief work in areas in deep poverty and special impoverished groups.

He called for coordinated efforts on poverty alleviation, encouraging the democratic parties to carry out thorough investigations and make good suggestions to governments at various levels.

The United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council leading group of poverty alleviation and development should play their parts in enhancing communication and policy coordination, respectively, Wang said.

As one of China's "three tough battles," poverty alleviation is of great significance to the country's building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

China aims to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020 as part of the creation of a moderately prosperous society. The country's poverty rate has dropped from 10.2 percent in 2012 to 3.1 percent in 2017 after 68.53 million people were lifted out of poverty over the past five years.