MAYBE GIVE ‘EM A FREE PASS TO THE LOVE HOTELS? Beijing Compels Economists to Be More Optimistic.

Beijing has resorted to various measures to prop up China’s ailing economy lately, like pumping lots of money into struggling industries to inflate demand. But it’s also trying another tactic: browbeating economists and business reporters into being more optimistic about the state of the Chinese economy. . . .

In a country with notoriously unreliable official statistics, it’s especially problematic that finance and economics experts could be editing their reports based on factors separate from the underlying analysis.

China’s efforts to brighten the picture artificially suggest something else too: top officials are worried. If the economy was in fact healthy, there would be no need to press experts to say as much. As Xi Jinping’s regime gets more restrictive and authoritarian, it sends a signal that all is not well in the Middle Kingdom.

Remember when Argentina was prosecuting people for accurately reporting inflation rates?