Lies, damn lies, and China's economic statistics

China may not be alone, but given their lack of freedoms (speech, press, dissension, etc.) the checks and balances that are prevalent in free societies are not there in China. To any who are familiar with Chinese economics, we have been preaching for years that China is a house of cards, held together by false data and government control.

I have my clients invested in China, but only in highly liquid investments that afford me the ability to get out before a crash. It's sad because I believe China has the potential to be a more robust economy than the US, but the overly-controlling communist party is too afraid to open up the markets and allow them to grow unrestrained.

This brings me to my last point. As Japan's economy spirals down, many of Japan's biggest companies have hitched their fate to China, investing in enormous capital projects that won't be profitable for decades, which could be Japan's downfall when China's house of cards collapses.

China what can one say about China? Well they did pay for a rust bucket the Russians are laughing all the way to the bank for! An Aircraft Carrier really?

There are a lot of things that are faked in China. But one thing that isn't fake is how dirty rich some of the Chinese tourists are.

@only one Possibly you mean Olympus?

China is definitely NOT alone in this.

Agreed.

the same thing is true of many Japanese corporations and their window dressing of their annual reports. Look at the sad case of Nikon(?). The board hid billions in debts through dodgy deals. It also applies to the bureacrat world I would assume.

The issue here is the lack of freedom of information prevents people to cross-check the data to test the data's integrity. As they say in research, it doesn't become acceptable data until it's peer-reviewed.

The Chinese should just remain cool headed and manage their own affairs or even mismanage it if need be. Are themselves who will pay the price if they mismanage their affairs, after all. Why suddenly everybody wants to be an economic advisor to the Chinese.

There's a phenomenon in cultural anthropology where scientists from society A notice things in society B that seem strange, foreign, and just plain wrong. However, upon closer inspection, those "things" are pretty much the same in both societies.

It's just that they are so ubiquitous in society A (like a fish not noticing the water, for example) they think they are strange when noticed from an objective perspective.

Pointing out that "gasp" China fudges it's economic numbers is one of those things.

Governments of the world have been fudging their numbers for YEARS.

China is definitely NOT alone in this.