In the end, the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it.
— George Orwell, "1984"
It’s hard to throw a metaphorical rock anywhere on the internet these days without hitting an article about Chinese economic statistics gone wrong. Anyone who has paid even a shred of attention to China’s official reports over the past 30 years is probably aware of the fact that they’ve consistently been manipulated, always in the same direction.
