China Through the Eyes of a Press Tour (Part 2): Why the Weakest Bird Takes Flight First
Gazing out the window into the vast emptiness of the sky, one drifts into passive reflection, turning over one topic after another. There is little else to do during the long-haul flights that accompany press tours across such a vast country...
And so, despite the similarities between individuals and nations—and between the histories of states, with their tragic blunders and remarkable ascents—developing countries do not all share the same starting point. Some gain advantages through natural resources, others benefit from their geographic location, while some begin under far more challenging conditions, where the very task of achieving economic growth requires clearly identifying what can serve as a foundation.
That is precisely why China’s story of overcoming poverty intrigued me—not merely because of the scale of the results achieved (though that is a crucial metric for assessment), but because of the very logic behind the process. After all, this was not a matter of simply redistributing funds to the neediest regions; it involved a more complex mechanism for creating an independent economic foundation for people and regions—one that would enable them to develop autonomously in the future, without relying on outside assistance.
A prime example of successfully addressing this kind of challenge is the very location our press team headed to after visiting Xiamen—a city we covered in a previous article (https://orient.tm/ru/posts/105019). Today, our journey takes us to the major prefecture-level city of Ningde. Once an impoverished agricultural area, it rapidly transformed into one of China’s most dynamic hubs for innovation and industry. The remarkable experience gained in Ningde was subsequently replicated across the entire country.
China’s Path from Poverty to Development: Finding a Leverage Point
In the late 1980s, Ningde was among the most economically underdeveloped areas of Fujian Province. Its mountainous terrain, the isolation of many settlements, poor infrastructure, and limited economic opportunities severely hampered the region's growth.
Almost forty years ago—in June 1988—Xi Jinping took charge of the Communist Party committee in Ningde. Rather than immediately proposing "miracle" solutions that were essentially arbitrary and unlikely to be implemented, the young Communist official chose a different approach: he carefully studied the local territory, human capital, and natural resources, aiming to devise a calculated, step-by-step plan of action based on a thorough understanding of the situation.
During his first month on the job, Xi Jinping and his colleagues visited nine counties in the prefecture to observe and assess the situation firsthand. This effort resulted in a detailed analysis of the region's economic status and potential avenues for development.
This analysis—conducted by the energetic Communist Xi Jinping—yielded a crucial conclusion that became the foundation of his strategy. The approach began not by asking what the region lacked, but by identifying what it already possessed and determining how those assets could be transformed into a basis for growth.
This gave rise to the concept of the "weak bird that takes flight first." The idea was not to deny the region's initial disadvantages, but to chart a unique development trajectory and pursue it steadfastly.
For Ningde, this process led to a re-evaluation of traditional industries. The mountains were viewed as resources for forestry, tea cultivation, and fruit farming; rural areas as a foundation for agricultural production and processing; and the coastline as a hub for fisheries and aquaculture. At the same time, it was essential to overcome infrastructure bottlenecks, improve connectivity between remote areas and more developed regions, and facilitate the movement of people and goods.
Thus, the fight against poverty evolved into a task of structural economic transformation. The Ningde municipality became the primary testing ground for shifting from the simple distribution of handouts to "targeted assistance" driven by the development of local industry, infrastructure, and education. It was here in Ningde that Xi Jinping wrote the book Up Out of Poverty, the ideas of which later formed the foundation of the nationwide program.
A Path of Economic Development
…For me, one of the most interesting sites visited during the press tour was the exhibition hall of the "Poverty Alleviation" memorial and educational complex. The exhibition is dedicated to the history of the fight against poverty in a region that was once considered one of the poorest in coastal China.
The exhibition traces the key stages of Ningde’s transformation—from addressing basic social and economic issues to developing infrastructure and agriculture, and establishing new models of economic activity.
On February 25, 2021, Xi Jinping—by then serving as President of the PRC—marked the culmination of years of targeted, systematic rural development. At a grand gathering in Beijing, he officially announced a complete victory in the fight against absolute rural poverty. This event represented a significant historical and socio-economic milestone for China.
The achievements of the Chinese people under the leadership of the CPC in eradicating poverty are truly staggering. Over the eight years the targeted assistance program was in effect, approximately 99 million rural residents were lifted out of absolute poverty. A total of 832 counties and 128,000 villages were removed from the list of impoverished areas. Thanks to this massive undertaking, China met the UN Sustainable Development Goal regarding poverty eradication ten years ahead of schedule.
How were changes that radically improved the lives of an entire nation achieved in such a short time?
First and foremost, Xi Jinping’s strategy was not merely declarative; it was grounded in the concept of "targeted poverty alleviation." To implement this, a national database was created in which a specific supervisor or official was assigned to each impoverished family; this person identified the root cause of their financial hardship—whether it was illness, a lack of roads, insufficient education, or something else.
Approximately 9.6 million people living in isolated mountainous or arid regions—areas ill-suited for a decent quality of life—were relocated to new settlements and urban neighborhoods equipped with established infrastructure. These locations fostered the development of micro-enterprises, eco-tourism, and agriculture—such as the cultivation of tea, mushrooms, and medicinal herbs in previously economically depressed counties like Zhouning.
At the same time, roads, electricity, mobile network coverage, and internet access were extended to all the villages, enabling farmers to sell their produce directly through e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba, Taobao, and others.
What lies behind the "weak bird" metaphor
The experience of Ningde offers a fresh perspective on the very concept of the "weak bird taking flight first." Its true meaning is not revealed in any single project or decision, but rather in a sequence of actions.
First, one must assess the region's actual situation. Next, identify its natural and human advantages. Then, channel investment and labor into areas capable of generating a sustainable income stream. The subsequent stage involves infrastructure, education, industrial development, and the expansion of economic ties. Only by following this sequence can temporary assistance gradually give way to self-sustaining development.
That is precisely why China’s experience in poverty reduction cannot be viewed merely as a social program. In a broader sense, it is a story of economic transformation—a shift from areas constrained by poverty and a lack of opportunity to regions capable of independently generating new possibilities.
The stories of individual families—such as that of Huang Zhenfang, whom I will discuss in greater detail in my next post—illustrate this process at the household level. The story of Ningde demonstrates it at the regional level. Meanwhile, China’s broader experience showcases the same principle on a national scale.
Ultimately, sustainable development begins when the reliance on external conditions gives way to the ability to harness one’s own potential. For one region, that potential might lie in its forests; for another, the sea; for a third, agriculture or industry. Yet the underlying economic logic remains the same: identify a foothold, transform it into a driver of growth, and steadily expand upon the foundation that has been built.
In this way, the "weak bird" gains the chance not only to take flight first but to gradually reach an altitude worthy of its wings and its higher calling.
More on this in the next post…
Enedzhan KEPBANOVA,
Ashgabat–Xiamen–Ningde–Fuzhou–Ashgabat
