Regular readers of this weblog know they can wake me up at night for some
nice faulty statistics or other
manipulations of the truth.
China Rises comes with a few very nice examples, picked up from the Far Eastern Economic Review, so that magazine must still be around.
“We ignore the fact that of the 3,220 Chinese citizens with a personal wealth of 100 million yuan ($13 million) or more, 2,932 are children of high-level cadres. Of the key positions in the five industrial sectors - finance, foreign trade, land development, large-scale engineering and securities -- 85% to 90% are held by children of high-level cadres.”
I agree with Tim Johnson that it is very unlikely the figures are true. Just editors love these things and so sometimes journalists or academics make them up. It sounds good. He found another one:
Now I see the World Bank says 20 of the world's 30 most polluted cities are in China. And here's a story that says 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities are Chinese. So which is it? And what are the cities?
It is nice entertainment and should be treated like that.
2 comments:
You are correct to not take these numbers at face value too easily. However, the author is an academic who I am sure risked quite some career opportunities for writing this essay. According to his publication list he seems to specialize in Chinese economic statistics. So, just dismissing this as made up is unwarrented either I find.
Best regards
Taking only academic credits for granted in accepting this highly unlikely set of figures for true is rather dangerous. Of course, this is not an academic article that requires the writer to spell out his sources, but for the time being I'm not convinced.
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