One topic has been mentioned every time President Xi Jinping has joined a panel discussion during the ongoing two sessions: poverty alleviation.

He reaffirmed the CPC's solemn promise to lift all of the country's poor people out of poverty by the end of this year when speaking with political advisers from the economic sector. He highlighted efforts to consolidate and expand the progress in using industrial development and employment as poverty alleviation methods when talking with national lawmakers from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. He instructed local officials to work hard to fulfill the poverty elimination goal when meeting national lawmakers from Hubei.He asked the military to support poverty relief when attending a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police Force.

Poverty alleviation has always been one of President Xi's big concerns.

A short time after becoming chief of the Communist Party of China in late 2012, he launched a nationwide campaign to eradicate absolute poverty, the threshold required for a society to boost itself to relatively high living standards.

"To lead the people to a better life is our goal. Not a single ethnic group, family or person should be left behind in the process of finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects," Xi said.

Graphic: Eradicating poverty in the time of COVID-19