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The announcement of the winners of the Nobel prize in economics set Chinese internet abuzz, with some Chinese netizens posting their support for China to receive the Nobel Economics Prize for lifting more than 850 million people out of extreme poverty and contributing to 70 percent of worldwide poverty reduction.

However, analysts noted it is netizens' misunderstanding of Nobel Prize, stressing China's obvious progress in lifting poverty doesn't need a prize to acknowledge. 

Chinese people should be proud of our achievements in poverty alleviation and open-minded to whether global society recognizes it or not, analysts said.  

American economists Michael Kremer, Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee and French-American Esther Duflo were awarded the Nobel Prize on Monday for their work on alleviating global poverty, primarily focused on poor communities in India and Kenya. 

They were awarded for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty, which has great potential to further improve the lives of the most impoverished people on the planet, according to the prize committee.

After the news was released, Some Chinese internet users engaged in a lively discussion on China's contribution to the alleviation of poverty. 

The hashtag Nobel Economics Prize was viewed more than 25 million times on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo platform as of press time Tuesday.

Some users posted that the US trio's experiment in tackling poverty could not compare with China's efforts. 

"China is best qualified to speak on poverty alleviation. The Chinese government and researchers have done more than just experiments," was a typical such post. 

China has lifted 850 million people out of extreme poverty in the past 40 years and contributed to over 70 percent of poverty reduction across the world, according to a Chinese government white paper released in December 2018 on China's progress in human rights since reform and opening-up. China has lifted the most people out of poverty in the world, the paper said.

Xu Hongcai, an economist with the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told the Global Times that "China's biggest achievements on poverty alleviation are in practice, while the Nobel Prize is designated to give to academics. They are two different things." 

Xu noted that winning Nobel Prizes is not the criteria for judging a country's contribution and achievements in tackling poverty. 

Commentator Sima Nan posted on his Weibo that China's proposal, practice, research and achievements in poverty alleviation were one of the most brilliant successes in world history. 

Chinese people should be proud of China's poverty alleviation progress and continue the work with or without a Nobel Prize, he posted. 


Newspaper headline: Netizens call for China to receive Nobel Economics Prize