China's central government has moved to stop its provinces from rigging their economic growth numbers, a widespread problem that has outraged as well as embarrassed Beijing, state press reported yesterday.
Survey teams will report directly to the National Bureau of Statistics, rather than to provincial governments, which often alter their numbers to make it appear that Beijing's economic targets have been met, Xinhua news agency said.
"It often happens that local governments interfere with the accounting to make them look better than they are," Xinhua quoted Cai Zhizhou (蔡志洲), an expert in the field at Beijing University, as saying.
The head of the statistics bureau, Xie Fuzhan (
"Some census takers did not follow the collection procedures and fabricated figures to make sure official targets were reached," Xie said.
For years, economists and observers have held that China's statistics are incorrect and that the economy was expanding at a much faster pace than the official rates.
Largely to blame for the misreporting is a system that has made the pursuit of economic expansion and development the top criteria for provincial cadres' political advancement.
China's key economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, last year warned provinces to better toe the line on Beijing's economic directives.
It issued in August a damning report that showed the economies in three quarters of China's provinces expanded at 12 percent or more in the first six months of last year, above the official national figure of 10.9 percent.
The report said the disparity meant that in the first six months of last year, China's economy was likely an estimated US$100 billion bigger than the official US$1.1 trillion figure.
To better enforce the rules, at the end of last year the statistics bureau formed its own survey teams in every province.
"The NBS will improve unified accounting of added value in the agriculture and construction industries and speed up the local GDP accounting by central government," Xie said.
Still, China's cabinet kicked off a closed-door economic conference yesterday that is expected to map out key reforms to improve the management of its increasingly complex financial sector.
Top policymakers convening the two-day National Finance Working Conference chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao (
State media said one of the key proposals would be to grant Central Huijin Investment Co (中央匯金), an investment holding company under the central bank, more independence in the administration of China's US$5 trillion worth of state assets.
Another plan on the table is to streamline the unwieldy management of China's various state economic policy agencies by creating a new super inter-agency in charge of the state's financial affairs.
China's financial system today is a mixture of archaic state-planning and new market mechanisms, which has made the management of the world's fourth largest economy increasingly difficult.
Some of the major challenges have been reforming China's securities markets, its currency and monetary policy.
Also on the cards are reform of two key state banks, including the troubled China Agricultural Bank (
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS