Statistical manipulation gets stricter supervision

Incorporating statistical manipulation as a violation of the discipline of the Communist Party of China will offer strengthened disciplinary guarantees to prevent and address this issue, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

In December, the CPC Central Committee issued the revised Regulations on CPC Disciplinary Action, which newly included statistical manipulation as a violation of Party discipline.

The NBS highlighted that statistical fraud is the greatest example of corruption in the field of statistics, seriously violating related laws, affecting the quality of statistical data and obstructing and even misleading macro decision-making.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has successively issued Party regulations and documents related to statistics, including regulations on inspection work to prevent and punish statistical manipulation.

Statistical departments have established a system to prevent and address statistical manipulation and have conducted inspections at the provincial level and in 12 government departments under the State Council, the NBS said.

Although these measures have effectively curbed statistical fraud, there remain some instances of interference in statistical work by officials.

Therefore, the new provisions provide a strong disciplinary guarantee for preventing and addressing this issue, the NBS said.

According to the new regulation, officials who fabricate statistics or turn a blind eye to statistical fraud will be punished, with the punishment ranging from the issuing of warnings to expulsion from the Party.

Officials who commit data fraud will be found, investigated and dealt with, and will not be tolerated, the NBS said in the statement.

Zhang Jinghua, former deputy secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPC, who was placed under investigation in December 2021, was found to have an improper and biased view of political achievements, falsified economic data in pursuit of personal advancement and improperly intervened in market economic activities. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison for bribery in November last year.

As stated in the regulations, data fraud includes modifying statistical data collected by statistical authorities and personnel, requiring statistical authorities, personnel or other organizations or individuals to forge or tamper with statistical data, and illegally intervening in providing statistical information.

Officials responsible for organizations which have experienced widespread or consecutive statistical fraud and manipulation, and those who fail to discover or correct serious inaccuracies in local government and departmental statistical data will be recognized as having turned a blind eye to statistical fraud.

The NBS said that statistical supervision is an essential part of the Party and State supervision systems and a fundamental function of government.

The regulations strengthen the supervision of the exercising of power in the statistical field, decisively curbing "data corruption".

The regulations can better ensure that statistical departments independently perform their monitoring and evaluation functions, objectively and truthfully reflecting the implementation of major decisions and deployments by the central government in various regions and departments, it said.

The NBS required statistical departments at all levels to rigorously investigate and deal with cases of statistical violations, especially instances where leading officials intervene in statistical work or personnel participate in statistical manipulation.