Decisive progress achieved in battle against poverty: Key meeting

BEIJING -- China has achieved "decisive progress" in the battle against poverty as more than 66 million people have been lifted out of their condition in the past five years, an official statement said Friday.

Historic achievements and transformations have been recorded in agricultural and rural development since the 18th Communist Party of China National Congress, which helped lay a solid foundation for national development, according to a statement released after a two-day central rural work conference.

The supply-side structural reform in the agricultural sector has advanced and agricultural modernization is making steady steps, the statement said.

Rural areas are a major front for one of China's "three tough battles" for the next three years -- preventing and defusing major risks, targeted poverty alleviation and tackling pollution.

The key conference outlined major tasks and targets for the rural vitalization strategy, eyeing "important" progress by 2020 and "decisive" results by 2035.

At the end of 2016, there were 43.35 million Chinese living below the national poverty line.