STORY: China's poverty relief achievements allow more people to have dreams: Malcolm Clarke
DATELINE: July 7, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:08
LOCATION: FUZHOU, China
CATEGORY: SOCIETY/CULTURE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the opening of the 2023 Maritime Silk Road International Documentary Film Festival
2. SOUNDBITE (English): MALCOLM CLARKE, British filmmaker and screenwriter

STORYLINE:

A two-time Oscar-winning director from the United Kingdom says China's poverty relief achievements have allowed more people to have dreams about the future.

Malcolm Clarke made the remarks at the 2023 Maritime Silk Road International Documentary Film Festival in east China's Fujian, where he introduced his documentary A Long Cherished Dream.
 
SOUNDBITE (English): MALCOLM CLARKE, British filmmaker and screenwriter
"I think the one thing that has been really successfully dealt with in China is that, China has, in a very short amount of time, historically, in a few years, has lifted 150 million people out of absolute poverty.
And they, for the first time in their lives, are in a position where they can allow themselves to have dreams about the future.
That's really interesting and that was what engaged me about trying to make a film or series films on poverty relief.
And I think the people are very brave to do that. I think that the government is very brave to accept that challenge, to get those people to do it.
Not to mention the fact that if you can suddenly pull 200 million people out of poverty and put them into schools, and put them into universities, that intellectual power, that engine is going to be contributive to the common wealth. It's going to make China a better place."

China declared the eradication of absolute poverty in early 2021.

Over the past four decades, the country has raised nearly 800 million people out of poverty.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Fuzhou, China.
(XHTV)