News Analysis China’s overcapacity in solar power has been used by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in his poverty alleviation campaign—an ambitious project to get farmers to install solar panels. This project, which theoretically helps lift farmers out of poverty, has in many cases been proven to increase the debt burden of rural and remote areas. Lifting China’s remote and impoverished regions out of poverty has been a key strategic goal promoted by Xi over the past few years. And the goal was set to be accomplished before the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) this year. At the end of 2020, the CCP claimed that all 832 poor counties in China have been removed from the poverty list and the goal of poverty eradication was achieved. Pushing farmers to install solar panels in remote areas has been described as “China’s pioneering precision poverty alleviation program,” …