Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping introduced the important concept of targeted poverty alleviation in November 2013 for the first time during his visit to Shibadong village, which led China to launch the overall battle against poverty and resulted in the historic eradication of absolute poverty. Recently, the Shibadong Forum on Poverty Reduction and Development was held in the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province. The forum was organized by the China International Communications Group (CICG) and the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Hunan Provincial Committee. Two anchors of the New Media Studio of Huaqiao University (HQU) “Voice of Overseas Students”, from South Africa and Angola, were invited to the main forum and delivered speeches at the sub-forum.

He Baoxiang, Vice Chairman of the 14th CPPCC National Committee and Executive Vice Chairman of the RCCK Central Committee, delivered a video speech. Chinese officials, diplomatic envoys from nearly 30 countries, think tank experts, and representatives of international organizations attended the forum, including Du Zhanyuan, President of CIGC, Huang Yan, President of the China Public Relations Association (CPRA) and member of the CPC Leading Group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MOA), Shen Xiaoming, Secretary of Hunan Provincial Party Committee, Mao Weiming, Governor of Hunan Province, François Nkuna Balumuene, Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to China, and Oliver Wonekha, Ambassador of the Republic of Uganda to China.

During his eight years in China, Wei Yuda, one of the anchors from HQU has witnessed China’s development and transformations and shot a series of themed short videos. He said, “In the future, I want to engage in practice more actively, learn more about the excellent cases of China’s rural revitalization, and share touching stories about China’s development with the world.”

Huang Meigui, another HQU anchor, filmed the video about loquat and lychee industries driving rural development in Yunxiao and Wupu, Fujian. Her video won the Outstanding Work Award in the“Youth on the Silk Road” Global Photography and Micro-video Competition held by China Daily. Seeing more and more Chinese youth have become a significant force for rural revitalization, she said, “I want friends worldwide to know about the real Chinese countryside and the contemporary Chinese youth, making more people fall in love with China.”

Wei Yuda (Angola) delivers a speech at the sub-forum.

Huang Meigui(South Africa)delivers a speechat thesub-forum.

(Editor: Wei Linying)