Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Friday chaired a leadership meeting to analyze COVID-19 containment and economic performance, with focus on Hubei's work resumption and poverty eradication nationwide.  

The meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee made new arrangements on coordinating COVID-19 containment and economic and social development. It also deliberated on two reports on poverty eradication. 

China has achieved great success in the overall containment work of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economy and society are recovering on a fast track, said a statement following the meeting.

The statement pointed out that the pandemic is hitting hard on countries worldwide outside China, and therefore the global economy and international trade are severely fractured.

The global health crisis is now pressuring China in terms of increasing imported cases and the recovery of its economy, especially supply chains.

Thus, the statement said, China has to push forward work resumption under a normalized mechanism of firm preventive and control work on the virus.

The meeting called for more extensive fiscal policies and economic measures to support enterprises and quicken the process of work and production resumption.

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According to the statement, the meeting also stressed the need for work resumption in central China's Hubei Province, where the hardest-hit Wuhan city is located, and touched on the overall support for the region.

Hubei needs to strengthen communication with other provinces to help local citizens go back to their workplaces and people who were unable to return to their homes during the epidemic.

Orderly work and production resumption in Hubei should be fostered under the premise of cemented containment efforts.

Then, there should be a set of customized policies to address fiscal and financial difficulties as well as supply chain problems, while supporting enterprises, workers and people's livelihoods in general.

Discussion on poverty eradication was another major topic of the meeting as the task is approaching its last stage.

The meeting acknowledged the accomplished work when commenting on the two reports. The statement said that the goal for poverty elimination in 2019 is completely achieved, and the practical experience has proved the correctness of the strategic plan on poverty eradication by the CPC Central Committee.

However, the overall situation of poverty eradication is still complicated and difficult, as certain regions and aspects still need to improve. The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought new challenges.

As the poverty elimination reaches the last stage, leaders of the CPC Central Committee should supervise the work on a regular basis and closely watch for any problems of formalism and bureaucracy.

And they should investigate and penalize any dereliction of duty and fabrication of work on poverty eradication, the statement said.

(With input from Xinhua)

(Cover: Disinfecting a workshop at Haoshou Garments Co., Ltd in Jinjiang City of southeast China's Fujian Province, February 20, 2020. /Xinhua)