Fall Of High-Level Party Official Who Faked Economic Data Triggers Concern Over China's Economy

China’s top disciplinary watchdog announced on May 31 that it has removed a former top official in eastern Jiangsu Province from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the regime’s public office.

Zhang Jinghua, former deputy CCP chief of Jiangsu, was accused of “faking economic figures for personal promotion and meddling in market activities in violation of relevant rules,” among other charges of corruption, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) in a notice on May 31. It did not provide any specifics for the accusation.

Zhang is one of the most recent CCP members of the 19th central committee—the CCP’s top governing body—to fall.

One day prior, China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) held a virtual meeting in which its director, Kang Yi, said that the problem of statistical falsification still exists in China.

On May 27, the NBS stated that 126 lower-level officials in Hebei, Henan, and Guizhou provinces had been punished for fabricating statistical data.

This wave of purging data fabrication began in March when the CCDI wrote on its website that some local officials had falsified data to create an illusion of development and manipulated statistical data by “reminding” and ordering relevant departments to make the necessary changes.

Foreign investment banks have already cut their China growth forecasts after the regime’s COVID-19 lockdowns hit the economy of Shanghai hard, with Nomura predicting growth of 3.9 percent.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fall-high-level-party-official-who-faked-economic-data-triggers-concern-over-chinas