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Netizens React: WSJ Reports China’s GDP Possibly “Exaggerated”

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On January 18, the Wall Street Journal reported that Derek Scissors, a China analyst at the Heritage Foundation, has publicly speculated that Chinese authorities are “very likely exaggerating [economic] growth.” Numbers released by China’s Bureau of Statistics show a decline from 10.4% Chinese GDP growth in 2010 to 9.2% in 2011, but Scissors said he suspects the decline is much sharper.

What do China’s netizens think of the story? On Weibo, China’s Twitter, they reacted with the vivid, often-humorous cynicism that decades of propaganda can inculcate.

Many commenters suspected there was at least some exaggeration on the part of Chinese authorities. One compared China’s GDP numbers to a kind of dice game: “Whatever number you want to show, that’s what you get.” Another, playing off a Chinese pun, joked, “Why does an ox fly? Because the Bureau of Statistics is blowing wind from below.”

A few, however, defended the official numbers. Some urged observers to consider the source – one called the Heritage Foundation, an organization well known for its conservatism even in China, “dirty.” One asked rhetorically, “Excuse me but which country [has] dependable [numbers]? The U.S.? Greece?” Another added that while “everyone knows” the GDP numbers are not reliable, it would be pointless to reject them unless other, better estimates were available. More vividly, some compared the statistics to “putting makeup on a ‘beauty’- [at least] we can still tell it’s a woman.”

Most commenters looked to the larger issues beyond the statistics. Some lamented a larger deficit of trust,  complaining that “every industry and field is rife with fraud,” and asking rhetorically, “What is reliable these days?” To others, quality of life was more important. One netizen asked, “Trustworthy or not, what does it matter to the average person? Can [the numbers] be traded in for a packs of unsoiled diapers? Can they buy a few real eggs? Can they buy a house?” Another added, “It’s not a lie that GDP is growing, but our environment and sense of happiness are declining at the same time.”