Document makes fudging figures a crime

Officials who fabricate or manipulate figures or take action against statisticians refusing to do so to help them could face administrative punishment and even criminal charges if a draft law amendment is passed.

The draft amendment to the Statistics Law was submitted to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, the top legislature, for its first reading yesterday.

"Ensuring the accuracy and quality of statistics is the key problem this amendment has to deal with," Ma Jiantang, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), told legislators.