Fifty years ago, 90% of Chinese people lived in almost medieval poverty. This is not a figure of speech; it is according to the World Bank.
In 1978, China was a country where the majority of the population lived on less than $2 a day. Today, that figure has fallen to less than 1%. And this turnaround was not achieved by miracle, nor by nights of collective prayer, nor by the proliferation of temples. They overcame poverty with method, discipline, and above all, scientific knowledge of their own challenges.
1. The first secret
Education first, ideology second
When Deng Xiaoping took the helm in 1978, he said one simple sentence:
“It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.”
This statement was a slap in the face to those who placed ideology above efficiency. The Chinese understood that a people cannot be lifted out of poverty with speeches, but with technical skills.
In 1980, in the small village of Xiaogang, 18 farmers secretly signed a contract to manage their land as private entrepreneurs. At the time, this was almost a crime against the state. But within a year, their grain production exceeded that of the previous ten years combined.
Deng Xiaoping took this clandestine experiment and turned it into a national reform.
2. Second secret
Special economic zones and the science of testing
China did not transform its entire country at once. It first tested its ideas in territorial laboratories called Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
In 1980, Shenzhen was just a fishing village with less than 30,000 inhabitants. Today, it is a city of more than 18 million inhabitants and the headquarters of Huawei, BYD, and Tencent.
Shenzhen’s growth is not a miracle. It is a prototype, a scientific test: “If it works here, we expand. If it fails, we correct it.” This is exactly what an engineer does in a laboratory.
3. Third secret
Industrialization before consumption
Africa often wants to start with consumption. Phones, motorcycles, clothes…
China did the opposite. It exported before consuming.
In the 1980s, owning a bicycle or a television was a luxury in China. But factories were already manufacturing for the whole world. Clothes, toys, simple appliances.
The money came from outside, but the added value stayed inside.
4. Fourth secret
Infrastructure as the backbone
Poverty isn’t fought with long prayers, but with roads, ports, railways, and accessible electricity.
Between 1990 and 2020, China built more than 140,000 km of highways (twice the length of the US network) and more than 40,000 km of high-speed rail lines, accounting for 70% of the global network.
When a farmer can bring his produce to market in 30 minutes instead of 5 hours, it’s not a miracle, it’s economic engineering.
5. Fifth secret
Collective discipline
When the Chinese government says a construction project must be completed in 10 days, it is completed in 10 days. Not because they are smarter, but because they have a culture of collective duty that we have lost in our countries.
The example I give here is the hospital built in 10 days in Wuhan (2020) during COVID.
More than 7,000 workers were mobilized day and night, without breaks, with perfect rotation.
The result was a fully operational hospital, while in our countries, a simple administrative building or university lecture hall takes four years to build… and sometimes is never finished.
In short, poverty is not a curse.
The Chinese have overcome poverty without prayer, but not without morals.
Their morals are work, discipline, collective organization, science, the audacity to try, and the courage to correct.
We in Africa sometimes have the illusion that we can change society with slogans, blessings, or fatalism. China reminds us that development obeys only the laws of physics, the laws of economics, and the laws of human organization.
And as long as we do not respect these laws, poverty will remain with us… not because of a lack of faith, but because of a lack of method.
Hassane Toro
