Fabricating statistics is a crime, perpetrators should be punished

THE AUTHORITIES HAVE RECENTLY PUBLISHED SOME INSTANCES of officials fabricating GDP statistics in a bid to get a promotion. For example, the GDP of Hengshan county, Hunan province, was reported to be 4.4 billion yuan ($718 million) in 2013; the true figure was 580 million yuan. Comments:

At present, data can be fabricated by low-level officials as the higher level statistics bureaus don't check the data reported by lower ones unless any obvious errors appear. It would be better if the higher authorities randomly select counties and check whether the figures they report are real.

Lin Deyong, an official at the Statistics Bureau of Hunan Province, Feb 15