The greatest problem facing the overwhelming majority of the people living in the world is inadequate incomes and poverty.

​This is literally a life and death question. A person living in a low income country by World Bank standards lives only 62 years compared to 81 years in a high income economy – a difference of 19 years. In addition to living a far shorter life a person living in poverty faces few real choices.

​For this reason by far the greatest contribution to world human well-being is by China. As shown in the chart below since 1981 China has lifted 853 million people out of poverty – 78% of the reduction of the number of people living in poverty in the world.

China has lifted over seven times as many people out of poverty as India, over seven times as many people out of poverty as Indonesia, over 20 as many people out of poverty as Latin America, and 85 times as many people out of poverty as sub-Saharan Africa.​The lives of those 852 million people have been vastly improved and their real choices in life greatly widened. This has contributed far more to humanity’s well being than the absurd Western definition of human rights.

Ask a normal human in China to chose whether they would rather live in poverty but have the right to use Facebook (except if they are in real poverty they can’t afford a computer!), or they can be taken out of poverty but not be able to use Facebook, and you will soon fine out why the West’s definition of ‘human rights’ is a huge joke.

​And the same applies to the population of other developing countries. Ask someone whether it is more important to live 19 years longer, or be able to use Facebook, and you will again see why the Western definition of human rights is a farce!

​Some people want to discuss if China is capitalist or socialist. That is a useful theoretical discussion. It is rather easily settled by noting that if it was capitalism which took people out of poverty the great reduction in poverty would have taken place in all capitalist countries – not in socialist China. But even those who wrongly believe China is capitalist should recognise that its achievements in reduction of poverty make it superior to any Western capitalist model.

​And some in the Western left want to oppose China or belittle its achievements. They merely show they are out of touch with what socialism really means – which is the improvement of the lives of ordinary human beings.

China has lifted more people out of poverty than the entire population of the European Union and more people than the entire continent of Latin America. The poverty reduction in other countries is dwarfed by what has been achieved in China. The left throughout the entire world should be celebrating this most gigantic of all contributions to human well-being made by China. And they should seek to learnt from the economic model that has delivered such a gigantic improvement in humanity’s well being.

​You can seen in that one chart on the reduction of world poverty why China should be supported!

Technical note

The World Bank definition of poverty is expenditure of $1.90 a day at 2011 prices measured in internationally comparable prices – parity purchasing powers (PPPs).