The truth of numbers

On www.stats.gov.cn, the official website of the National Bureau of Statistics, one of the lead items is its director Ma Jiantang's recommendation of an article published on The Wall Street Journal's Chinese-language site.

Tom Orlik, an independent contributor from Shanghai, says in the article that 2009 will be an important test of the quality of China's statistics.

That a ministry-level official visits (and apparently visits quite regularly) a Wall Street Journal website is an encouraging sign.