Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at a grand gathering to mark the nation's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

-- Over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty.

-- Combined with poverty-reduction results since the late 1970s, China is responsible for over 70 percent of the global reduction in poverty over the period.

-- Xi said the country has blazed a poverty reduction trail and formed an anti-poverty theory with Chinese characteristics.

-- Xi demanded efforts to consolidate poverty alleviation achievements and initiate a dovetailing drive of "rural vitalization."

-- China on Thursday inaugurated a new cabinet body on promoting rural vitalization.

BEIJING, Feb. 25  -- Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday that China has secured a "complete victory" in its fight against poverty.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said absolute poverty has been eradicated in the world's most populous country, home to over 1.4 billion people.

Xi made the announcement while addressing a grand gathering held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to mark the nation's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters.

With absolute poverty eliminated, China has created another "miracle" that will "go down in history," Xi said in a televised speech.

The high-profile event was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang and attended by other senior Party leaders Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng -- all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee -- and Vice President Wang Qishan.