From Wall Street Journal:
China is working to improve its much-maligned system for compiling statistics, as the downturn throws a harsh light on the gaps in the official portrait of the world’s third-largest economy.
Helping to build a better foundation for future numbers is a network of people such as Feng Lijun, a 49-year-old civil servant who sports dark suits and yellow-tinted glasses. She was drafted to oversee a team of workers in China’s economic census — a massive survey that is the centerpiece of the government’s effort to overhaul a crude counting system inherited from the planned economy.
Concerns about the reliability of China’s data have been highlighted in recent months by the government’s declarations that it will achieve the traditional annual growth target of 8% this year, part of its desire to paint a smooth picture of continued economic progress even amid the global slowdown.
