Elite Chinese Politics and Political Economy

My friend Bill's reply to my earlier posting about the statistical bureau in China:

I do think, however, that the unbelievable degree of false or incomplete
reporting on a number of issue areas by lower level makes most Chinese
aggregate data so unreliable that I will shy away from any quantitative
analysis until this improves dramatically even from where it stands now. That
things have gotten immensely better in terms of both data quality and
availability in recent years is without question. But things do still have a
long long way to go - I think it is potentially a sign of real progress for
the SSB director to admit this.