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Preface
The idea of this book was first proposed in December 2020. I had just come back from Gansu, where I had been attending 2020 International Seminar on Global Poverty Reduction Partnerships and the Belt & Road Beautiful Countryside Forum. I had been offered help in Gansu to action an idea I had been considering for some time - the launch of a small charitable action. I was keen to go back to Gansu to get things moving. It was suggested that in addition, I should write a book for FLP on poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, based on the Gansu experience. I was more than happy to take on this assignment, and FLP quickly reached agreement in principle with the Gansu authorities. I hoped to start work on the book in late spring of 2021.
Ongoing problems with Covid created persistent obstacles, and over the summer of 2021 and into the autumn, we in FLP found ourselves charged with a significant workload during the celebrations of the Centenary of the CPC. As a result, I was not in fact able to start work on the book until the end of December 2021. Originally it was intended that I should visit all parts of Gansu, which I was looking forward to with great anticipation. Unfortunately, Ume constraints ultimately limited my trip to the southern part of Gansu. I hope that at some time in the future I will be able to go back and visit the places I missed.
This book starts in partⅠ with a historical account of economic development and poverty alleviation work in China since the founding of the PRC in 1949. In partⅡ talk about the different places I visited, and what I learned there about their efforts in poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. I learned a lot that filled me with enthusiasm and confidence for the future.
I grow increasingly weary of the West's glib assumption of moral superiority over China, and its endless preaching about how China should be "more like us". I do not consider Western political systems to be better than China's; in many ways they are worse and in some ways they are much worse. I do not think China could have achieved a fraction of what it has achieved in poverty alleviation, rural revitalization, or many other fields if the country had encumbered itself with a Western political model. In partⅢ I go into considerable detail to explain why I believe these things-which will seem like heresy to many Western observers and to provide arguments for my point of view.
