But that was more of an excuse than an explanation, according to an official source involved in the Green GDP project. The source tells CDT that the immediate motives of the NBS, particularly its new director Xie Fuzhan (Ë∞¢‰ºèÁûª), were to pass the buck of responsibility and avoid shaming local authorities – as some Chinese news reports have hinted. Once again, says the source, intergovernmental frictions are slowing down the Green GDP campaign and complicating Beijing’s to integrating its green goals into its overall blueprint of “scientific development”. The politics surrounding Green GDP work are particularly tense, says the source, ahead of the 17th Party Congress later this year.

Portions of our conversation with the source (O) follow:.

B: So what exactly happened?
O: It was very sudden. The week before last, the Statistics Bureau suddenly said they were bowing out. They weren’t going to release the report.

B: Why?
O: It appears that this has a lot to do with the a new bureau chief. He’s an official (ÂÆòÂëòÔºâ, not a technocrat ÔºàÊäÄÊúØÂÆòÂÉöÔºâ. The Green GDP really makes the provinces and cities look bad. Let’s say they have ten percent growth, but because of pollution and wasted resources they lose four percent of it; then their GDP growth is effectively reduced to six percent, if you figure that way. Currently, these officials’ assessment are still based almost purely on local GDP growth. But the new Statistics Bureau chief is afraid he’s going to end up offend a lot of local governments. He doesn’t want that responsibility. So he decided that his Bureau was not going to issue the report. Any cadre in China can understand how this thinking. Basically, he has pushed the responsibility onto the State Council.

(...)
Read the rest of Green GDP Mired In Red Tape -Source (Q&A) (1,176 words)

© Jonathan Ansfield for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: green GDP, Pan Yue, Qiu Xiaohua, Xie Fuzhan
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Chinese statisticians have a national duty not to produce fake figures, the country’s top number-cruncher said in remarks published on Monday.

Xie Fuzhan, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, said statisticians should not bend their principles to please local officials or their bosses, the China Youth Daily reported.

“Statisticians should be loyal to the country and responsible to its people,” Xie told students at the opening of a statistics department at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing. [Full Text]

© Wu Nan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: economic growth, NBS, statistics, Xie Fuzhan
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