As a China Daily reporter, Erik Nilsson has spent 15 years exploring poverty alleviation in remote areas in every provincial-region on the Chinese mainland.

Nilsson said he has made it his "life's mission" to tell the story of China's poverty alleviation through his reporting and his new book Closer to Heaven: A Global Nomad's Journey Through China's Poverty Alleviation.

A Chinese Government Friendship Award laureate, he shared his experience as a reporter in the earthquake-ravaged cities of Wenchuan, Sichuan province, and Yushu, Qinghai province. Wenchuan was hit by a 8-magnitude quake in 2008, and Yushu endured a 7.1-magnitude temblor in 2010.

"Even there, on the 'planet's third pole', China's poverty alleviation miracle means that the Yushu I returned to is a different place from what I saw in 2011," Nilsson said.

He said China has been the main driver of global poverty alleviation. "I expect China's development will continue to accelerate to advance virtually every dimension of human well-being, not only within China but also the world."

Vision China was launched in 2018 and serves as a major podium for promoting China's voices via the media group's position as a globalized, all-media platform that features multilingual and multichannel distribution.

Seventeen previous Vision China events have been held in cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Macao, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province and Lanzhou in Gansu province as well as in New York, London and Johannesburg.