China orders statistics bureau to fight fake data with modern technology

China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has been tasked with uncovering fabricated data using modern technology, according to the latest update to the agency’s responsibilities endorsed by Beijing.

On Friday, the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform published a revised scheme dictating the agency’s functions, internal structure and staffing quotas.

The scheme took effect on October 28, according to the notice.

The office is a joint Communist Party and state body that finalises structural schemes for government and party groups after they are endorsed by the General Office of the party’s Central Committee or the State Council. It is currently headed by Li Xiaoxin, deputy head of the Central Organisation Department, the party’s top personnel management agency.

According to the notice, the NBS will adopt a multipronged approach to ensure the authenticity and scientific rigour of its statistical data.

This involves tightening quality control throughout the data collection process and strictly enforcing regional agencies’ responsibility to audit figures. The bureau is explicitly tasked with “making full use of modern technological means to enhance the ability to uncover statistical fabrication”.

The NBS will also “intensify statistical oversight and law enforcement inspections” to forge a robust, authoritative and reliable supervision system.

Analysts have long been concerned about the accuracy and authenticity of China’s data, as well as a lack of transparency, while internally, Beijing needs reliable figures to guide its policy direction.

At the time, the bureau revealed that certain regions in the southwestern province of Guizhou were falsifying data, while county governments in the northwestern province of Shaanxi had actively interfered with data gathering.

Looking ahead, the NBS will overhaul its survey methods through a “digital and intelligent transformation”, according to the notice.

This will involve deeply integrating modern information technologies – including big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) – into statistical work to boost “efficiency and scientific rigour”.

The bureau’s internal structure has also been overhauled, with several departments renamed and their functions realigned. The Department of Energy Statistics, for instance, has been rebranded as the Department of Ecology, Environment and Energy Statistics to oversee carbon emission surveys alongside traditional energy metrics.

Meanwhile, a newly established Department of Population and Livelihood Statistics will expand its focus beyond employment to organise surveys on population dynamics, the labour force, wages, household income and migrant workers.

This is not the first time Beijing has restructured the NBS to tackle data fabrication.

In 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping approved a directive on deepening institutional reforms to improve the authenticity of statistical data. The following year, the NBS established a dedicated statistical law enforcement and supervision bureau.