Poverty alleviation

When A Bo was growing up in a high mountain village in Southwest China's Yunnan province in the 1970s and '80s, his family was so poor all they had to eat was wild fruit and herbs. One dirt road led to his village, and when heavy summer rains turned it to mud, travel was all but impossible.

"We were always hungry," he said in the CSM story. Today, with government help, his family and many others in his village have worked themselves out of poverty. He raises ducks, pigs and cows on a small farm and works construction and other odd jobs.

His village has running water and paved roads. And while his modest income "doesn't count as very good, it's a lot better than before," he said with a laugh.

"There is a very high degree of satisfaction in rural low-income areas for the Chinese Communist Party," said Matthew Chitwood, a US fellow with the Institute of Current World Affairs, who recently returned from living for two years in Yunnan's remote mountain village of Bangdong.

"My neighbors in Bangdong are living their best lives now," he said. "Their lives have dramatically improved from even five years ago, and they attribute that directly to the party."