I’m glad to see that so many ppl have called out the outright bias and hypocrisy in this. I don’t want to pile on, and instead talk about LiangShan region 凉山, part of my home province Sichuan, and the poverty there from my knowledge and experience. A thread. https://twitter.com/dsorennie/status/1306622098333343745

LiangShan sits in the dense mountains in south Sichuan. The demographic is about 1/2 Han 1/2 Yi. This region has traditionally lacked access to the outside & long been poverty ridden due to its geography. Some of its villages are literal cliff villages next to 500m drops.

The famous poet Li Bai 李白 said this about roads into Sichuan: steep and dangerous, the road into Shu (Sichuan) is as treacherous as trying to reach the heavens. The villages have to scale cliff side ladders to go outside. CN has been rebuilding those too. P2 - P4 old vs new.

The geography limits dev of both trade and agriculture. Without road goods can’t come in or out, so trade and modern farming are out of question. The land is rocky, barren, fragmented & lacking irrigation, so it’s only feasible to grow limited types of crops, namely potato & corn

As a result poverty there has a deep root and long history. Ppl from West or CN’s coast think of poverty as lacking money/shelter, but still resembling a modern life. They often can’t conceptualise the kind of poverty in the mountains, the isolation, despair & psychological harm

What kind of poverty are we talking about that exist in LiangShan? The kind where they’ve relied on potatoes for so many gens that it’s their staple diet. The kind where a family has 1 pair of pants and whoever goes out wears it. I’ve either seen these myself or heard fm parents

They are not only deprived of material goods but also info. Living in extreme poverty for so many gens, many do not even know what skills they need to acquire in order to escape from it. GOAT Dave Chappelle said it, being broke is financial, being poor is a mindset to escape from

To be clear being poor isn’t caused by bad mentality but generational poverty has profound psychological and cultural impacts. Every ancestor & everyone around is perpetually poor, it changes the view on edu, aspiration, relations. CGTN covered it

This is why the current poverty alleviation effort is a multi-prone approach: roads and broadband to bring access of goods and e-commerce opportunities, relocation to improve current conditions, and edu to bring next gen out of poverty mindset

During COVID the image of a girl climbing to the mountaintop to get signal for her online classes once again caught ppl’s attention. Building broadband infrastructure for these areas is the top priority to make sure they can be part of the modern education & e-commerce boom

I do not think it’s wrong to say that poverty alleviation requires change of mentality. In past ppl felt indifferent about the gov aid because they didn’t know lives could be different. Some rejected change out of fear. Hence the emphasis on appreciating the improved situation.

CN has also tried to tackle the poverty in LiangShan for decades, including just handing out money in the past. When it was just free money it created gambling and drug problems. By all indications the new campaign is working, ppl now can sell their products online nationwide.

With WiFi coverage and mobile phones becoming common, there’s also more hope & possibility for the kids. They can access education better, and are finally exploring the internet like other kids have done. This is Qubierli, known as LiangShan Kobe. He’s now in new house too.

You might still ask, why all the ham-fisted posters and slogans? Well, considering the CN gov fulfilled their promise on such a monumental achievement, and the party esp. local staffer worked so hard to achieve it, I’d say they deserve the gratitude and earned the right to brag.