2020-10-26 16:15:29
Xu Rudong, a farmer in eastern China, thought he had left poverty behind long ago. He turned a small plot of land into a flourishing field of leeks, selling enough to pay for luxuries like fish and meat for his wife and four children. He even had money left over to buy an electric scooter.
生活在中国东部的农民徐如动以为自己早就摆脱了贫困。他把一小块地变成了丰产的韭菜田，卖出了足够的钱让妻子和四个孩子吃上了鱼和肉这样的奢侈品。他甚至还用剩下的钱买了一辆电动摩托车。
Now Mr. Xu is once again struggling to pay for basic necessities like food and medicine. The economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic has hurt his income, and severe flooding has devastated his crops.
现在，徐如动又要为诸如食物和药品等基本生活品的开销发愁了。新冠疫情造成的经济放缓影响了他的收入，严重的洪灾则摧毁了他的庄稼。
“We are poor, poor people,” Mr. Xu, 48, said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Wangjiaba, a village of 36,000 in Anhui Province. “We don’t eat meat anymore.”
“本身俺们就是贫困，就是穷人，”48岁的徐如动在安徽省王家坝的家中接受电话采访时说，王家坝是个有3.6万人口的村庄。“俺不吃肉了。”
China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, is expected to declare victory in the next two months in a campaign to eliminate extreme poverty in the country. The Chinese economy is once again gaining strength, and the Communist Party’s achievements in reducing poverty are expected to feature prominently this week at a conclave of party leaders in Beijing.
中国最高领导人习近平预计将在未来两个月宣布在国内消除极端贫困运动的胜利。中国经济再次强劲增长，中共在减贫方面取得的成就预计将成为本周在北京举行的党内领导人会议的重点。
Four decades of fast economic growth lifted most people in China out of poverty, and the Communist Party has vowed to help those who remain at the bottom. Mr. Xi’s antipoverty drive is focused on around five million people who earn less than 92 cents a day, down from nearly 56 million five years ago.
40年的快速经济增长使中国大多数人摆脱了贫困，中共也誓要帮助那些仍处于社会底层的人。习近平的脱贫运动关注的是约500万年收入低于2300元的人，五年前这一数字接近5600万。
Vowing to “leave no one behind,” Mr. Xi has traveled to hard-hit areas like Wangjiaba to reiterate his commitment.
许诺“不让任何一个人掉队”的习近平曾前往像王家坝这样的重灾区，重申他的承诺。
But the pandemic has exposed the party’s shortcomings in providing its most vulnerable citizens with more than the barest of social safeguards, especially in rural areas. And some experts warn that the government’s response to the crisis — favoring infrastructure spending and tax breaks for companies instead of direct aid for families — may widen China’s gap between rich and poor, which is already among the highest in the world.
但大流行暴露了中共在为最弱势公民提供最基本社会保障方面的不足，尤其是在农村地区。一些专家警告称，政府的危机应对——支持基础设施的支出和对企业的税收减免，但没有对家庭的直接援助——可能会拉大中国本已经属于世界最严重的贫富差距。
While wealthier workers have largely kept their jobs and assets during the pandemic, millions of people on low incomes are working fewer hours at lower pay, depleting savings and taking out loans to survive.
虽然大多较富裕的工人在疫情期间保住了工作和财产，但数以百万计的低收入群体工作时间减少，工资降低，储蓄减少，需要贷款才能生存。
“Our society is not fair,” said Jike Erge, 27, a construction worker from the southwestern province of Sichuan. “My dream is to be rich, but I don’t know if it can be realized. A stable income and job are impossible.”
“这个社会当然不公平，”27岁的吉克尔哥说，他是西南省份四川的一名建筑工人。“梦想是这样想的（想要富裕），但是不知道能不能实现。收入和稳定的工作是不可能了。”
Mr. Jike did not work in the first half of the year because of lockdowns related to the coronavirus. In August, he endured another crisis when severe floods destroyed his home, valued at about $15,000, which he had just finished building. He said he had not received compensation from the government for his losses from the floods, which affected tens of millions of people across China and were the worst in decades.
因为与新冠病毒相关的封锁措施，吉克尔哥在今年上半年都没有工作。8月，他又经历了一场危机，当时一场严重的洪水摧毁了他刚刚建好的、价值约10万元的家。他说，他还没收到政府对他洪灾损失的补偿，这场洪灾影响了中国数千万人，是几十年来最严重的一次。
“We work outside for four seasons a year, but we have no savings,” Mr. Jike said. After the epidemic and the floods, he said, “we couldn’t be poorer.”
“一年四季都在外面打工，在家里一点收入都没有，”吉克尔哥说。在疫情和洪水过后，他说：“这样的话再贫困不过了。”
Mr. Xi told a United Nations meeting recently that China was “undaunted by the strike of Covid-19” and would meet its poverty targets on schedule. He has mobilized millions of officials and spent billions of dollars to meet his goal, a politically important milestone for the party before the centenary of its founding next year.
习近平在最近的联合国会议上表示，中国“全力克服疫情影响”，并将如期实现脱贫目标。他动员了无数官员，耗费了巨额成本来实现这一目标，这是明年建党100周年之际一个重要的政治里程碑。
Chinese experts say the strength of the government’s monitoring system will ensure that people stay on a path to prosperity. Local officials, who face the threat of punishment if they do not meet Mr. Xi’s targets, maintain detailed lists of the income levels of poor residents and hand out subsidies, housing and loans to push them above the poverty line.
中国专家称，政府的监管体系将确保人民继续走向繁荣。地方官员要列出记录贫困居民收入水平的详细清单，并发放补贴，提供住房和贷款，使他们脱离贫困线，如果达不到习近平的目标，他们就将面临处罚。
“Any groups of people who are below the standard are put into a file and recorded,” Li Xiaoyun, a scholar at China Agricultural University in Beijing who is an adviser to the government on poverty programs, said in an interview. “Every village knows.”
“哪个群体没有达到这个标准都是建档立卡，”北京的中国农业大学学者、政府扶贫项目顾问李小云在接受采访时表示。“每个村庄都知道。”
Yet the response to the pandemic has exacerbated many longstanding problems in the countryside.
但对大流行的应对加剧了许多农村长期存在的问题。
China has for decades treated rural people as second-class citizens, limiting their access to high-quality health care, education and other benefits under the strict Mao-era household registration system by keeping them from moving to the cities. More than 40 percent of the population — about 600 million people — lived on less than $5 a day last year, according to government statistics.
几十年来，中国政府一直将农村人口视作二等公民，毛时代留下的严格户籍制度阻止他们进入城市，限制他们获得高质量的医疗、教育和其他福利。据政府统计，去年有超过40%的人口——约6亿人——月收入不足1000元。
China’s early efforts to fight the spread of Covid-19, including lengthy lockdowns across broad areas of the country, left rural residents stranded hundreds of miles from the factories where they work. Many were unemployed for months. Their children also fell behind, lacking the internet connections or hardware to take part in online classes.
中国抗击新冠疫情蔓延的早期努力，包括在全国广大地区实施的长时间封锁，让农村居民被困在距离他们打工的工厂数百英里远的地方。许多人失业了好几个月。他们的孩子也落后于人，缺乏参加在线课程的网络连接或硬件。
A recent study by Stanford University’s Rural Education Action Program found that incomes fell severely among rural workers during the peak of China’s outbreak in February and March. Rural residents reported losing about one-fifth of their income in those two months alone, at the same time that food prices and living costs were rising.
斯坦福大学(Stanford University)农村教育行动计划(Rural Education Action Program)最近的一项研究发现，在中国疫情最严重的2月和3月，农民工的收入严重下降。据报道，仅在这两个月，农村居民就失去了约五分之一的收入，与此同时，食品价格和生活成本都在上涨。
The central government has done little to address the pressures facing rural workers during the pandemic, the Stanford study found. The government has directed much of its aid to businesses in urban areas.
斯坦福大学的研究发现，中央政府几乎没有采取什么措施来解决农民工在疫情期间面临的压力。政府将大部分援助资金用于城市地区的企业。
With the economy still slow in many parts of China, rural residents say they are frustrated that the government is not doing more to help improve their financial situation.
由于中国许多地区的经济仍在放缓，农村居民说，他们对政府没有采取更多措施来帮助他们改善经济状况感到失望。
Zhou Caijuan, a kiwi seller in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, said that her income had fallen sharply during the pandemic and that she was struggling to pay back tens of thousands of dollars in debt. She said officials seemed more concerned with collecting data and taking propaganda photos than helping her thrive.
周彩娟是中国西北部陕西省的猕猴桃销售商。她说，疫情期间，她的收入大幅下降，现在正在艰难地偿还数十万元的债务。她说，官员们似乎更关心收集数据和拍摄宣传照片，而不是帮助她发展。
“What are you doing for the people?” she recently wrote on Weibo, a social media platform. “All day you’re calculating incomes and not thinking first about how to help poor farmers sell kiwis.”
“给人民都办什么事了？”最近，她在社交媒体平台微博上写道。“天天算账，也不想想，先帮贫困农民把猕猴桃卖了嘛。”
Ms. Zhou said in an interview she was exhausted by filling out paperwork and answering questions when officials visit her farm twice a month.
周彩娟在接受采访时说，官员们每个月都要到她的果园来两次，每次她都要填写表格和回答问题，这让她筋疲力尽。
“I’m just very annoyed by being poor,” she said, adding that the promise of poverty-relief programs often did not match the reality. “‘Poverty alleviation’ is just a gorgeous fur coat,” she said.
“反正很反感贫困，”她说，还说扶贫项目的承诺往往与现实不符。“‘扶贫’就是一件华丽的裘皮大衣，”她说。
Many people on low incomes say they are arbitrarily excluded from government aid despite living in difficult circumstances.
许多低收入的人说，尽管他们生活困难，却被武断地排除在政府援助之外。
“They could easily fall into poverty and face various deprivations,” said Gao Qin, a Columbia University professor who studies China’s social welfare system.
“他们很容易陷入贫困，面临各种各样的剥夺，”哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)研究中国社会福利制度的教授高琴说。
As with any government initiative with heavy spending, the authorities also routinely report cases of bribery, embezzlement and favoritism in doling out funds, drawing calls for stricter oversight. It is also unclear whether efforts to fight poverty — such as programs to help poor people sell fruits, vegetables and clothing online — will endure after Mr. Xi meets his goal.
与任何开支巨大的政府举措一样，当局也经常报告在发放资金时存在贿赂、贪污和徇私舞弊的情况，这引发了加强监管的呼声。此外，目前还不清楚扶贫的努力——比如帮助穷人在网上销售水果、蔬菜和衣服的计划——在习近平实现目标之后是否还会持续下去。
Mr. Xi faces questions within the party about “the extent to which this poverty elimination campaign is now for real, given the enormous assault that’s happened on disposable income,” said Kevin Rudd, a former prime minister of Australia who maintains close ties to Chinese officials. He cited the impact of the pandemic and trade tensions with the United States in holding back economic growth.
与中国官员保持密切联系的澳大利亚前总理陆克文(Kevin Rudd)说，习近平面临党内的质疑，“由于可支配收入受到巨大打击，目前的扶贫运动在多大程度上是真实的”。他指出，疫情的影响以及同美国的贸易紧张都阻碍了经济增长。
“Many people are wondering, ‘Do I have a job? Has my business gone bust? And how do I feel about my future?’” Mr. Rudd said.
“很多人都在想，‘我能找到工作吗？我的生意会破产吗？我对自己的未来有什么想法？’”陆克文说。
Two months after Mr. Xi’s visit, farmers of Wangjiaba say the aid provided by the government, including onetime subsidies of about $300 and packets of seeds, has not been enough to offset their economic losses.
习近平访问两个月后，王家坝的农民说，政府提供的援助（包括约2000元的一次性补贴和一包种子）不足以抵消他们的经济损失。
Mr. Xu estimates that he lost at least $3,000 worth of crops in the floods, and more because of the economic slowdown during the pandemic. With fruit and vegetables still scarce in his village, he says he will have to spend at least $1,500 more on food this year than he had expected. He plans to sell his sheep this winter and grow other crops to make a living.
徐如动估计，他在洪水中损失了至少价值两万元的农作物，大流行期间的经济放缓更是加大了损失。他说，由于村里的水果和蔬菜仍然短缺，今年他在食物上的花费将比预期至少多出一万元。他计划今年冬天卖掉他的羊，种植其他农作物来维持生计。
“Even if you aren’t out of poverty, the country will say you’re out of poverty,” he said. “That’s the way it is.”
“你不脱贫国家也叫你脱贫，”他说。“是这样的。”
Albee Zhang对本文有研究贡献。
赫海威(Javier C. Hernández)是《纽约时报》负责报道中国的记者。他报道了习近平领导下专制国家的崛起、#MeToo运动等社会理念的发展以及农民工和污染受害者等中国最弱势公民的困境。欢迎在Twitter上关注他 @HernandezJavier。
翻译：纽约时报中文网
点击查看本文英文版。