PARIS — Voters in French overseas territories and those living abroad began voting Saturday in a parliamentary runoff that could deliver an
The screenshot was shared in similar posts on X here It is here, Facebook, Instagram It is 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 most prominent 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 persistent youth unemployment. high.
Banga handed over his speech during the forum’s first seminar on March 24, but his quote was taken out of context in the misleading posts (archived link).
An excerpt from the relevant segment of his speech and the full transcript show that he was referring to 1978 data.
A reverse image search on Google found images of Banga’s speech posted by the official CNS account at Douyin on March 24, 2024, the same day he spoke at the forum (archived link).
The simplified Chinese title of the 51-second video reads: “World Bank President: The path to development is not easy, but China proves that anything is possible.”
In his speech, Banga praised China’s development and poverty reduction efforts in recent decades. He did not say that China currently has 770 million people living in extreme poverty.
In fact, he says: “In 1978, 770 million people in China lived on the knife’s edge of extreme poverty. Almost all people – 98%, in fact – in rural areas were below the poverty line.
“But it was in that year that China launched a determined strategy to embrace difficult reforms that fundamentally changed its development trajectory for decades to come,” he continues.
“In the decades that followed, China’s labor force grew by two-thirds, creating 315 million jobs. This explosive job growth coincided with the fastest period of poverty reduction in the country’s history.”
Below is a screenshot comparison between the image in the misleading posts (left) and the images published by CNS (right):
One full transcription of Banga’s speech published by the World Bank confirmed that he was referring to poverty rates in 1978 (archived link).
According to World Bank data released in 2022, China raised more than 800 million people of extreme poverty in the last 40 years (archived link).
In 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that the country had achieved the “human miracle” of eliminate extreme povertyalthough questions continue to arise surrounding the Communist Party’s criteria for making the claim.
China also claimed to have achieved its long-vaunted goal of lifting its entire population above the poverty threshold of $2.30 daily income in the previous year.
This value is slightly above the World Bank’s lowest limit of $1.90, but below what is recommended for higher-income countries.
Hong Kong Fact Checking Organization Anne Laboratory also debunked this claim (archived link).
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