According to SMU Associate Professor of Political Science John Donaldson, who specialises in the study of poverty, China does not include urban population in its poverty calculations. He highlighted that differences between China’s cities and countryside are too vast and it makes sense not to lump them together. “However, to say that China’s poverty rate is lower than America’s is just mixing apples and oranges – America’s poverty is really bad. China’s is worse,” said Assoc Prof Donaldson. “It just changes in form – from rural to urban, from a ‘Third World’ type of poverty to a ‘First World’ type.”