World Bank president's speech on China poverty reduction taken out of context online
The World Bank's president did not say China currently had 770 million people living in extreme poverty, contrary to misleading social media posts that took part of his speech out of context. Ajay Banga was referring to data from 1978, not 2024, and in fact praised China's strategy to reduce poverty.
"Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank: China has 770 million people in extreme poverty," read the simplified Chinese caption of a post shared on X, formerly Twitter, by an account with more than 86,000 followers.
"Netizens: Xi Jinping should stop throwing money around!"
The screenshot included the watermark of the state-run China News Service (CNS) and simplified Chinese text indicating it showed Banga's speech at the China Development Forum in Beijing on March 24, 2024.
The subtitles read: "China has 770 million people in extreme poverty."
The screenshot was shared in similar posts on X here and here, Facebook, Instagram and Weibo.
The posts circulated after the two-day China Development Forum concluded on March 25, 2024, which was attended by some of the world's highest-profile business figures, including Apple CEO Tim Cook.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva called on China to implement "a comprehensive package of pro-market reforms" to boost a sluggish economy beset by a housing market crisis, low domestic demand and persistently high youth unemployment.
Banga delivered his speech during the forum's first seminar on March 24, but his quote has been taken out of context in the misleading posts (archived link).
A clip of the relevant segment of his speech and the full transcript show he was referring to data from 1978.
Out-of-context quote
A reverse image search on Google found footage of Banga's speech posted by CNS' official account on Douyin on March 24, 2024, the same day he spoke at the forum (archived link).
The 51-second-long video's simplified Chinese title reads: "World Bank President: The path to development is not easy but China proves anything is possible."
In his speech, Banga praised China's development and poverty reduction efforts in the past few decades. He did not say that China currently had 770 million people living in extreme poverty.
In fact, he says: "In 1978, 770 million people in China lived on the razor's edge of extreme poverty. Nearly every single person -- 98 percent actually -- in the rural countryside were below the poverty line.
"But that's the year that China launched a determined strategy to embrace difficult reforms that fundamentally changed its development trajectory over the coming decades," he continues.
"In the decades that followed, China's workforce grew by two-thirds, creating 315 million jobs. That explosive job growth coincided with the country's fastest period of poverty reduction in history."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading posts (left) and the footage published by CNS (right):
A full transcript of Banga's speech published by the World Bank confirmed he was referring to poverty rates in 1978 (archived link).
According to World Bank data released in 2022, China had lifted more than 800 million people out of extreme poverty over the past 40 years (archived link).
In 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared the country had achieved the "human miracle" of eliminating extreme poverty, though questions continue to surround the Communist Party's criteria for making the claim.
China also claimed it had achieved its long-trumpeted goal of lifting all of its people above a poverty line of $2.30 in daily income the year before.
That is slightly above the World Bank's lowest threshold of $1.90, but below what is recommended for higher income countries.
Hong Kong fact-checking organisation Annie Lab also debunked this claim (archived link).
