This article was first published on February 26, 2021. By Mimi Lau Xi claims victory in eliminating extreme poverty China has declared com­plete suc­cess in elim­in­at­ing extreme poverty, with Pres­id­ent Xi Jin­ping hail­ing the lift­ing of 850 mil­lion people out of des­ti­tu­tion as an “unpre­ced­en­ted accom­plish­ment” unmatched by any nation in mod­ern his­tory. In a speech at a cere­mony in Beijing yes­ter­day (February 25, 2021) to com­mend poverty fight­ers, broad­cast live by state...