China's pursuit of common prosperity inspiring to world: U.S. expert

Ma Huihuang (L), leader of the poverty relief team of Shibadong Village, together with villager Shi Linjiao, promotes local products via live streaming at Shibadong Village of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, central China's Hunan Province, May 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Chen Sihan)

BOAO, Hainan, April 20 (Xinhua) -- China's pursuit of common prosperity is inspiring to other countries as it ensures people's right to live a decent life, a U.S. expert said Wednesday.

The country has proved that absolute poverty can be eradicated in a relatively short time, Jeffery Sachs, professor at Columbia University and the author of "The End of Poverty," said at the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference.

In February 2021, China declared the elimination of absolute poverty after lifting nearly 100 million rural poor out of poverty over the previous eight years.

Abundant resources, including high-quality education, health care services and infrastructure, coordinated by proactive government for everyone are the key to success of realizing common prosperity, Sachs said.

Sachs also noted that China's Belt and Road Initiative plays an important role in decarbonizing and protecting the environment, which is also vital to benefiting all humanity.

"I would like to see the European Union and the United States see the initiative in terms of partnership, rather than competition," he said.

Having long been high on China's government agenda, common prosperity gained particular attention in 2021, both at home and abroad, as the leadership gave it more prominence.

Tangible progress toward common prosperity has been listed as one of China's key long-term targets through 2035, by which time the country is expected to have basically achieved socialist modernization.