Official Chinese economic statistics, from unemployment to arable land, are controlled by the Communist Party and therefore cannot be trusted. The prevailing American and global view of China as a rising, if presently troubled, economic superpower is based on this unreliable data. Evaluation of selected economic, financial, and sociopolitical indicators shows them to be inconsistent and most likely inaccurate, so that American and global decision making is badly informed. A sustained effort to compile more accurate data on China would clarify China's global economic role and improve the basis for U.S. policymaking

and limit taxpayer exposure.

China is far more economically open today than the Soviet Union was when its collapse surprised the U.S. policy community in

1991. Still, the Chinese Communist Party controls and manipulates the information it releases. The prevailing American view of the People's Republic of China (PRC) as a rising economic superpower, even if struggling a bit, is based on this poor information. American decision making requires considerably better data, so that policy can be based on actual conditions in the PRC.