Full coverage: 2017 NPC & CPPCC Sessions

By Han Xu, director of political system research office, Institute of Political Science, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, cartoon drawing by Liao Tingting.

On March 8, Chinese President Xi Jinping joined a panel discussion with deputies from Sichuan Province during the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing. Xi inquired about the detailed progress of poverty alleviation in Sichuan, southwest China, and called for greater efforts to help poverty-stricken people.

The Communist Party of China has made a solemn promise to lift all remaining poverty-stricken people out of that status by the end of 2020, Xi said.

He saw a television report on the 800 meters high cliff village in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. He showed great concern for the villagers' livelihoods and their daily trips by climbing up and down the steep ladders to their homes. Xi stressed that poverty alleviation must focus on grass-roots efforts, require precision measures, and sometimes patience and accuracy like "doing embroidery".

The most arduous task for building a comprehensive well-off society lies in rural areas. Accordingly, driven by the poverty alleviation campaign led by the central government, more than 10 million people have gotten escaped impoverished circumstances nationwide each year since 2013. The number of people living in poverty in rural areas was reduced by 12.4 million last year to 43.35 million.

Xi Jinping said the country's poverty alleviation work has entered a crucial stage and is facing tougher challenges with the approach of the 2020 deadline. That requires officials to undertake greater responsibilities, take precise measures, and make meticulous efforts. He also called for continuous measures to prevent those who have already escaped poverty from falling into that status again. Formalism should be stopped resolutely in poverty reduction work, he emphasized.

Xi's remarks witness the Party Central Committee's steadfast mind to serve the people, offering action principles for winning the campaign on poverty eradication.

(The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Panview or CCTV.com)

Panview offers a new window of understanding the world as well as China through the views, opinions, and analysis of experts. We also welcome outside submissions, so feel free to send in your own editorials to "globalopinion@vip.cntv.cn" for consideration.