China Maripo - The rural villages of Maripo are a world away from Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, reaching from Beijing and Shanghai, and from narrow roads sometimes dangerously close to the deep canyon. Schoolchildren squatted down on the sidewalk for a simple breakfast, and even local officials complained that remote mountain villages would not have access to the latest 5G internet connection.

However, Chinese officials pointed out that overall progress in this dense, alpine border area in southwestern China is the reason for their “confidence” in the country’s development model and their ability to engage in any trade war with the United States.

"We are full of confidence and the ability to overcome all difficulties," Deputy Foreign Secretary Hua Chuning said on a government-sponsored trip to Maripo County, Yunnan Province, which borders Vietnam last week.

"As for what the United States does, we really don't want any war, but if we have to face reality, then we won't be afraid," she told a reporter at the middle school. "Ordinary people have already felt suffering from the tariff war, so I really hope the (US) government can return to normal."

China is agreeing to sign tariffs on each other’s imports in what Beijing calls an import case, demonstrating its effectiveness in resisting tariffs “bullying” against President Donald Trump.

She and other officials said Malipo has spread over several decades in several towns and hundreds of "rural groups." Last year, Maripo's per capita disposable income was $2,300 per year, compared with about $69 per year in 1992.

But Beijing’s self-proclaimed confidence masks the potential impact on what has yet to be done and U.S. tariffs, as China has potential impact on structural imbalances and slowing economic growth.

This situation crosses the urban-rural gap in China, and is obvious to even the residents of Malipo.

"The economy is not that good," said Liu Huixin, a supplier who sells Vietnam and Thailand in the market.

“Looking at the many stores around, people didn’t buy it,” he said.

Ending "absolute poverty" (a goal officially achieved by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of 2020) is considered a crucial goal to reduce income inequality in the world's second largest economy as it strives to catch up with the United States.

More than 450 million of China's 1.4 billion people live in rural areas and it is crucial to allow them to spend more money on consumer products as China tries to reduce its economic dependence on exports to the tariff threat.

China also touts its “poverty relief” program as a model for developing countries facing similar challenges in the developing countries in the south of the world.

“Malipo’s experience in poverty is of global significance,” said Liu Jining, 40, a 40-year-old Chinese diplomat, who is also deputy mayor of Maripo County, a plan for partnering with central government ministries, wealthy provinces and institutions and impoverished areas.

Hua said the strength of the Chinese system lies in its ability to "focus resources on people's urgent needs." Since 2015, it is believed that Beijing has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to alleviate poverty.

Rana Mitter, a historian and political scientist at Harvard Kennedy School, wrote in a new foreign affairs article that China combines “inequality” with high social spending to “emphasize the perceived failure of free-market capitalism.”

Mitter told NBC News that plans such as Malipo are "an increasingly important part of China's messaging, with development solutions targeting rural and urban areas."

"This may be particularly attractive in many global southern countries that still have a large agricultural sector, and may look for examples of China to find ways to modernize their rural areas," he said.

Jason Choi, director of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate Sunwah Group, said the company investing in Maripo is still "invisible hand of market forces."

He said improved infrastructure and government support were important factors in the decision of his family’s company to invest about $7 million in a modern tea factory in Maripo, as well as the brand potential associated with Maripo’s ancient tea trees.

“We created jobs directly for more than a hundred people, downstream and upstream, there are about 10,000 jobs,” said Choi, 25.

In nearby Jinping, another county aims to alleviate poverty, a company’s Color Group, a Shenzhen-based technology hub, specializes in graphics cards used in video games, has invested about $15 million in a smart agriculture company and other venture capital, creating 200 production jobs for 200 people and working for contract agriculture.

Its corn products are sold on Walmart’s Sam's Club, 7-11 stores and e-commerce platform JD.com, in addition to being exported to Southeast Asia and elsewhere.

When asked about the impact of the U.S.-China trade war, Malip mayor Siao Changju pointed out the rapid development prospects for border trade with Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries.

He also echoed a line that Chinese officials often use, saying: "We don't like fighting a trade war, but we are not afraid of one."