扒车喵在海外问答网站Quora上，一名印度网友提问道：中国每年都会向外国进行大量投资，为什么他们不把这些钱用来消除国内的贫困？这个问题不仅外国网友不理解，很多国内网友也曾就相关问题进行过激烈争论。对此，一名在联合国工作过的专家发文解答了这个问题。
为什么中国不把对外投资的钱用到消除国内贫困上来？
Indeed, for any government, the resources at its disposal are limited and need to be reasonably planned and used. However, the view that foreign investment and promoting the development of domestic poor areas are irreconcilable contradictions and conflicts is wrong in itself and lacks the most basic economic common sense.
诚然，对任何政府来说，可供其支配的资源都是有限的，需要合理规划和使用。然而，将对外投资与促进国内贫困地区发展视为不可调和矛盾和冲突的这一观点本身就是错误的，缺乏最基本的经济学常识。
In recent years, China’s overseas investment has indeed developed rapidly all over the world. From the alumina smelter invested in Indonesia to the high-speed railway in Turkey, China’s investment projects are blooming everywhere. In 2020, China’s foreign investment ranked first in the world, with a total investment of 133 billion US dollars, even though COVID-19 spread worldwide, it still increased 3.3% over the previous year.
近年来，中国的海外投资确实发展迅速，遍及世界各地。从在印尼投资建设的氧化铝冶炼厂到土耳其的高铁，中国的投资项目遍地开花。2020年，中国的对外投资额位列世界第一，投资总量达1330亿美元，尽管新冠疫情在全球蔓延，仍比上年增长3.3%。
印尼氧化铝冶炼厂
But this does not mean that China has neglected the development of poor areas. On the contrary, through stable economic development and vigorous targeted poverty alleviation, China has helped more than 100 million people get rid of absolute poverty and achieve the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way from 2015 to 2020. China has successfully solved the problems of absolute poverty and overall regional poverty, 10 years ahead of the poverty reduction goal set by the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
但这并不意味着中国忽视了贫困地区的发展。相反，通过稳定发展经济，大力开展定向扶贫，从2015年到2020年，中国已经帮助超过1亿人摆脱绝对贫困，实现全面建设小康社会的目标。中国已经成功地解决了绝对贫困和区域总体贫困问题，比联合国2030年可持续发展议程设定的减贫目标提前了10年。
With the help of the government, the lives of people in poor areas in China have undergone earth shaking changes:
在政府的帮助下，中国贫困地区人民的生活发生了翻天覆地的变化：
• income: the per capita net income of the poor increased from 2982 yuan in 2015 to 10740 yuan in 2020, with an average annual growth of 29.2%. Behind this is a series of efforts made by Chinese officials, including relying on local resource advantages and characteristic industries to carry out industrial poverty alleviation, transfer employment and encourage the poor to find employment in big cities, which not only maintained social stability, but also developed potential markets.
• 收入：贫困人口人均纯收入从2015年的2982元增加到2020年的10740元，年均增长29.2%。这背后是中国官方的一系列努力，包括依托当地资源优势和特色产业开展产业扶贫、转移就业、鼓励贫困人口到大城市就业等措施，不仅维持了社会稳定，还开发了潜在市场。
• social security: fully realize compulsory education, fully cover basic medical care, and ensure housing safety and drinking water safety. On this basis, the well-being and security of low-income people have been significantly enhanced.
• 社会保障：全面实现义务教育，全面覆盖基本医疗，保障住房安全和饮用水安全。在此基础上，低收入人群的幸福感和安全感显著增强。
• self confidence and autonomy: in the process of poverty alleviation, the Chinese government also pays attention to promoting people’s spiritual transformation and lifting people out of ideological poverty. At the same time, government staff impart knowledge and technology to people, let them become rich with their own hands and stimulate their enthusiasm. Promoting education, developing industry and ensuring employment in poor areas are the embodiment of this concept.
• 自信与自主：在扶贫过程中，中国政府还注重促进人们精神层面的转变，使人们摆脱思想贫困。同时，政府工作人员向人们传授知识和技术，让他们用自己的双手致富，激发他们的积极性。促进教育,发展产业,保障贫困地区就业,都是这一理念的体现。
While paying attention to poverty alleviation, China has never ignored the important role of foreign investment.
在关注脱贫攻坚的同时，中国从未忽视对外投资的重要作用。
First, the growth of foreign investment itself is also a manifestation of domestic economic development. At present, China’s economy is dominated by internal circulation, but this does not mean closure and self-sufficiency. Domestic investment enterprises need to improve China’s competitiveness in domestic and foreign markets by expanding China’s potential domestic demand.
首先，对外投资的增长本身也是国内经济发展的表现。当前中国经济主要由内部循环主导，但这并不意味着封闭和自给自足，国内投资企业需要通过扩大中国潜在的国内需求来提高中国在国内外市场的竞争力。
With the increase of domestic consumption and the digital development of enterprises, the management ability and technological innovation ability of Chinese enterprises will be improved accordingly, so as to enhance their competitiveness and provide favorable conditions for going abroad. High tech industry, e-commerce and remote technology will also be developed in this process.
随着国内消费的增加和企业的数字化发展，中国企业的管理能力和技术创新能力将得到相应提升，从而增强其竞争力，为走出国门提供有利条件。高新技术产业、电子商务、远程技术等也将在此过程中得到发展。
Foreign investment will also provide employment and development opportunities for the Chinese people, including poor areas. Taking overseas infrastructure construction as an example, many Chinese technicians and workers can obtain employment opportunities and improve their economic conditions. For them, working in Chinese production bases in Africa and elsewhere can usually earn several times higher income than at home.
外国投资还将为包括贫困地区在内的中国人民提供就业和发展机会。以海外基础设施建设为例，许多中国技术人员和工人可以从中获得就业机会，改善自己的经济条件。对他们来说，在非洲和其他地方的中国生产基地工作通常可以获得比国内高出数倍的收入。
Problems that can be solved with money are often not a problem. Many people think that poverty can be solved only by giving money. This idea is too simple to imagine the work of poverty alleviation.
能用钱解决的问题往往不成问题。很多人认为解决贫困只要靠给钱就可以了，这种想法把脱贫工作想象地过于简单了。
What China’s poor areas really need is not wealth, but to help them cultivate skills that can make a living on their own or industries that can develop sustainably. If you just keep subsidizing their lives with money or things, their needs are bottomless. The government will not want to see them become lazy people accustomed to receiving handouts.
中国贫困地区真正需要的不是财富，而是帮助他们培养可以自我谋生的技能或可以持续发展的产业。如果你只是一味地用钱或物不断地贴补他们的生活，那他们的需求就是无底洞，政府不会愿意看到他们成为惯于接受施舍的懒汉的。
Villages on the top of cliffs in Guizhou, Yunnan and other places don’t need much money. They only need a solid rope ladder to let children go to school safely. They only need a small path to the mountains to communicate with the outside world.
贵州、云南等地悬崖顶上的村庄不需要太多钱，他们只需要一个结实的绳梯就可以让孩子们安全地上学，只需要一条通往山里的羊肠小道就可以和外界互通有无。
通往大山深处的绳梯
To help the poor, we must accurately know what the poor really need, and the Chinese government has done it. The Chinese people have moved back home. The government understands their nostalgia for their hometown, so it never forces people living in areas with poor natural conditions to move out, because they know better that education will broaden their horizons for these children born in Sri Lanka, help them get out of the mountains and create a better life for themselves and their families.
要扶贫，就要精准地知道贫困人口真正需要的是什么，中国政府就做到了。中国人安土重迁，政府了解他们对故土的留恋，因此从来不强制那些在自然条件恶劣地区生活的人们搬迁出来，因为他们更加知道，教育将为这些生于斯的孩子们开拓眼界，帮助孩子们走出大山，为自己和家人创造更好的生活。
Maybe you have never been to China in the future. In fact, the living conditions in poor areas in China are much better than all developing countries you can mention. Over the past few decades, China has been implementing affordable housing projects for the middle and low classes. This measure has successfully prevented the formation of large-scale slums, although it is common in other developing countries. According to United Nations standards, in China, what you call slums are some dilapidated old houses, but in other countries, they are regarded as decent low-income housing.
也许你从未来过中国，其实中国贫困地区的生活条件要比你能提到的所有发展中国家都要好得多。中国在过去几十年中一直在为中低阶层实施保障房安居工程。这一措施成功地阻止了大规模贫民窟的形成，尽管这在非洲、印度等其他发展中国家是很常见。按照联合国标准，在中国，所谓的贫民窟是部分年久失修的老房子，在其他国家，却通常被视为体面的低收入住房。
Now let’s take a look at the situation in India. According to the report of the Pugh research center of the United States, due to the influence of COVID-19, at least 75 million people in India have fallen into poverty, and 134 million people live below the poverty line. The poor account for 9.7% of the national population. This is 3 percentage points higher than the poverty rate of 6.7% announced by the Indian government in 2019. In India, if the daily living cost is less than US $2 (about 12.8 yuan), it belongs to the poor.
下面我们再看看印度的情况。据美国皮尤研究中心的报告显示，由于新冠疫情的影响，印度至少有7500万人的生活跌入贫困，累计已经有1.34亿人生活在贫困线以下，贫困人口占到了全国人口的9.7%。这比印度政府2019公布的6.7%的贫困率增长了3个百分点，而在印度每天生活费低于2美元（约合12.8元人民币），就属于贫困人口。
India has carried out the “green revolution” and “white revolution” in an attempt to solve the food and clothing problem of the domestic population through the development of agriculture. However, due to the defects of the supporting system and mechanism, it seriously deviates from the original good idea of reform, and the poverty alleviation effect is extremely limited. It not only failed to make the people rich, but also reduced many farmers to “contract labor”, Or enter the city and become unemployed refugees.
印度曾开展“绿色革命”和“白色革命”，企图通过发展农业解决国内人口的温饱问题，但因为与之配套的体制机制的缺陷使得其严重背离改革最初的美好设想，扶贫效果极其有限，不仅没能让人民致富，反而令许多农民或沦为“契约劳工”，或进入城市成为无业流民。
In short,Poverty alleviation and foreign investment are not incompatible, but should complement each other and promote each other’s relations, which require not only the advantages of institutional mechanisms, but also the efforts of all citizens to work together. a closer examination will find that the accusation that China pays too much attention to foreign investment and ignores the construction of domestic people’s livelihood is untenable, reflecting these people’s rigid way of thinking and either or extreme mentality.
简言之，扶贫和对外投资不是水火不相容的，而是应该相辅相成，相互促进的关系，这不仅需要发挥体制机制的优势，还要全体国民戮力同心，一起努力。仔细审视后你就会发现，指责中国过于关注外国投资、忽视国内民生建设的说法是站不住脚的，反映了这些人僵化的思维方式和非此即彼的极端心态。
