Jiangsu poverty number generates heat on social media

The news that East China's Jiangsu province, which has a population of more than 80 million, has 17 people still living in poverty went viral online and raised suspicion on China's social media.

Zhu Guobing, director of the provincial government's poverty alleviation office, said on Tuesday the province now has 17 people from 6 families that have not cast off poverty.

The office said the statistics were accurate because the information of all the people living in poverty in the province had been well collected. With big data technology the office can identify and analyze poor families and help them effectively, it said.

People who earn less than 6,000 yuan ($867) a year are classified as living in poverty in the province. The government did not give each of them 6,000 yuan to lift them out of poverty because they should master skills to help themselves out of poverty, according to the office.