Chen Xudong, Secretary of the Zhongshan Municipal Party Committee, came to Zhongshan Technical Secondary School before the Mid-Autumn Festival to make mooncakes, taste sweet dumplings with students from Zhaotong, Yunnan Province and delivered them festival greetings. These students have benefited from the targeted poverty alleviation policy of cooperation between the eastern and western China, and they have come out of the mountains to study in Zhongshan.

Zhongshan began to provide complementary support for Zhaotong in 2016. This collaboration began a new journey of poverty alleviation and cooperation between the eastern and western China. Zhongshan focuses on targeted poverty alleviation, promotes the "1+8+N" new model of poverty alleviation and cooperation, and formulates precise strategies in such aspects as labor service cooperation, industrial cooperation, financial support, education, medical and health cooperation, cadre and talent exchange, and social assistance.

Over the past three years, Zhongshan has helped more than 50,000 Zhaotong people out of poverty. These efforts have benefited more than 200,000 people and, through effective support, helped to successfully lift Suijiang County out of poverty in 2018. The remaining three counties will follow suit this year.