Poverty alleviation official granted posthumous honor

BEIJING - Zhang Xiaojuan, a government official who died while on duty working on the front line of poverty alleviation in Zhouqu county, Northwest China's Gansu povince, has been posthumously honored as a national role model in the country's fight against poverty.

The title was jointly given by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, the office said in a statement Wednesday.

Zhang, a member of the Communist Party of China and deputy chief of the Zhouqu county's poverty alleviation and development office, died at the age of 34 in a road accident when she was returning to the city on the evening of Oct 7 following poverty alleviation work in rural areas.

Zhang graduated from the Minzu University of China in Beijing in 2007. She gave up her job in Beijing in June 2018 and opted to work in her deeply poor hometown as a village-based official, deputy chief of a township government and then deputy chief of the county's poverty alleviation and development office.

She traveled to 208 villages across Zhouqu to visit poor people and devoted all her time and energy to the cause of poverty alleviation, the statement said.

In the statement, the authorities vowed resolute efforts to secure a victory against poverty by tackling bastions of deep poverty and focusing on improvement in terms of compulsory education, basic healthcare services, housing and the drinking water safety of poverty-stricken people.