China's dodgy economic statistics have lead to such absrudities as this. China's leadership is doing something about it. Jiang Zhenghua, a vice-chairman of the NPC, has called for a revamp of China's Statistics Law to stop provincial authorities doctoring data. Mr. Jiang wants to beef up the penalties and give the law real bite. The scale of the problem? Between 2001 and 2003 more than 59,000 violations of the law (ie false reports) were discovered, but not one official was fired or even demoted. That's because the regional bosses have the same interest as the official doctoring the numbers: they want the numbers to look good. The law will likely be changed because the central Government, not surprisingly, finds it difficult to steer China's economy without good data. It is like driving a friggin' big truck with one eye closed.