A Hema Fresh supermarket in the Changning district of Shanghai welcomes its first customers after reopening on May 17, 2022. On the same day, Shanghai officials said that all 16 districts in Shanghai reported no new COVID-19 cases at the community level. Businesses gradually resumed operation, including Starbucks. Photo: cnsphoto

China has gotten tougher on its fight against statistical data fabrication, as the prevention of and clampdown on faking economic data is now topping the agenda of the nation's top statistical bureau. 

In addition to efforts to double down on statistical inspections as part of a broader push to ensure data quality for macro fine-tuning and scientific policymaking, the use of blockchain technology should be relied upon to ensure data accuracy and non-tampering, an ex-statistical official said.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) held a video mobilization conference on addressing the issue with runaway statistical falsification on Monday, the NBS disclosed Tuesday in a statement on its website. 

Statistical falsification is the biggest form of corruption in the sphere of statistics and inflicts the most harm on the public creditability of governmental statistics, Kang Yi, head of the NBS, said while addressing the meeting.

Since the Party's 18th National Congress in 2012, the bureau has spared no efforts to push for increased accountability in averting and punishing fraudulent practices, carry out statistical inspections and toughen statistical law enforcement, Kang said, adding that such efforts have begun to show their effectiveness in containing and deterring data fraudulence.

Nonetheless, certain places were still found to have continued with statistical forgery, the NBS head noted, calling attention to the long-term, complex, arduous battle against the falsification.  

He urged a fight "with real knives and real guns" against statistical fabrication. 

In a fresh sign of the unambiguous push against false economic data, Zhang Jinghua, former deputy Party chief of East China's Jiangsu Province, was expelled from the Party and public office over serious violations of Party discipline and laws, the country's top anti-graft body announced on Tuesday. 

In a rarely mentioned yet keenly watched violation, Zhang was accused of having faked economic figures for personal promotion and meddled in market activities in violation of relevant rules, according to the announcement.
That a Party official as high-ranking as Zhang was held accountable for data forgery is a rarity, Ye Qing, former deputy head of the Hubei Provincial Statistics Bureau, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

A number of government officials in North China's Hebei Province, Central China's Henan Province and Southwest China's Guizhou Province have been punished for statistical falsification, the NBS revealed on Friday, citing results of the bureau's law enforcement inspections into multiple cities of the provinces in 2020 and 2021 based on reporting by whistleblowers. 

Dozens of firms that were found to have provided untrue statistical materials have been slapped with administrative penalties by provincial statistical bureaus.  

During a two-day statistical inspection tour of East China's Fujian Province ended Friday, Kang also stressed firmly upholding the lifeline of statistical data quality, thereby providing premium statistical services for economic and social development.

The recent emphasis on battling against falsified data is emblematic of the country's tougher stance on ensuring data accuracy over the years since the statistical inspection mechanism was in place as part of a push to strengthen legislation and law enforcement for statistical violations since 2016, according to Ye, currently a professor of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan.

But such moves remain largely reliant on whistleblower complaints that would trigger official statistical inspections, the ex-official continued, suggesting that blockchain-based platforms that have already been trialed in some parts of the country to allow for non-tampering data filing and management ought to be up and running across the country.

Tapping into the country's blockchain prowess would more effectively and accurately crack down on data forgery, he remarked.