On Feb 25, A grand gathering to mark China’s poverty alleviation accomplishments was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. President Xi, delivered an important speech and honored model poverty fighters.

Over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. All 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages have also been removed from the poverty list. With absolute poverty eliminated, China has created another "miracle" that will "go down in history," Xi said in the speech.

Summarizing China's experience in conquering poverty, Xi said the country has blazed a poverty reduction trail and formed an anti-poverty theory with Chinese characteristics. He underlined the role of Party leadership, which has provided a "political and organizational guarantee" for China's poverty alleviation efforts.

Poverty relief work has been led by the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC. Party chiefs at all levels were required to assume the primary responsibility for achieving the campaign's ambitious targets. Over 3 million public sector officials were sent from cities and towns to villages to fight poverty "on the front lines." China also leveraged the political advantage of its socialist system, which can bring together the needed resources to accomplish great tasks. This enabled massive programs, such as those pairing up better-off provinces with others in need to tackle poverty. The country's strategy of targeted poverty alleviation was also highlighted.

"Ending poverty, improving people's well-being and realizing common prosperity are the essential requirements of socialism," Xi said.

At Thursday's gathering, Xi presented medals, certificates and plaques to role models from the country's anti-poverty fight. He also joined other Chinese leaders in presenting awards to individuals and groups for their outstanding achievements in the fight against penury.

Two individuals and groups from Changzhou were awarded. The two individuals are: Wang Huihui, who works as the deputy dean of the TCM Hospital at Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Hainan; and Yan Qinghua, party secretary of Huangjin Village at Zhulin Town in Jintan District. The two groups include Poverty Alleviation Task force of Changzhou to Ankang, and the Administration Committee of Changzhou High-Tech Industrial Zone in Dafeng Industrial Park.