China details regulation on statistical work

The Chinese government has released a regulation on the implementation of the revised Law of Statistics, intended to prevent the falsification of official data.

The regulation, released under a decree signed by Premier Li Keqiang, will be effective from Aug. 1, 2017.

The regulation calls for standardization of statistical surveys from the source, and lists specifications on how to organize and carry out surveys.

Severe penalties will be imposed on officials and staff who intervene in government statistical work and manipulate or fabricate data, according to the regulation.

The latest revised Law of Statistics took effect on Jan. 1, 2010.

Under the revised law, government officials and institutional leaders are banned from altering data collected by statistical workers, while original records must be maintained and management of data improved.

To ensure data authenticity and reliability, in recent years the country unveiled guidelines on the management of statistical work, improving the legal framework and punishing economic data-related violations.

In April, China set up a special law enforcement unit under the National Bureau of Statistics to prevent, investigate and punish data fabrication.

Last year, the bureau investigated 15 major statistical violation cases, punishing more than 10 people in each case.