What is the development process of new China government statistics？
In 1949, the Financial and Economic Committee of the State Council of the Central People’s Government established the Statistics Department in the Planning Bureau, which opened a new chapter in the history of government statistics. Over the past 70 years, the statistics of new China started in difficulties, advanced in exploration, enriched and developed in reform, and painted a glorious chapter in the reform and development of new China with figures and charts.
The development history of new China government statistics can be divided into six periods (see Figure 1):
Fig. 1 The development of government statistics in New China.
I. Preliminary establishment of statistical system (1949-1958)
On October 1st, 1949, New China was founded and the Central People’s Government was established. On the 21st, the Central People’s Government established the Financial and Economic Committee of the State Council, which consists of six bureaus and two departments. Among them, the Central Planning Bureau has a Statistics Department (later renamed the General Statistics Department), which has several statistical groups such as comprehensive, industry, agriculture and capital construction, with Di Chaobai as its director.
On August 7, 1952, the 17th meeting of the Central People’s Government Committee appointed Xue Muqiao as the director of the National Bureau of Statistics of the Central People’s Government. In accordance with the resolution of this meeting, the National Bureau of Statistics was established on the basis of the General Statistics Office.
On January 8, 1953, the State Council issued the Decision on Enriching Statistical Institutions and Strengthening Statistical Work, which became the first programmatic document of the new China government’s statistical work, and established the National Bureau of Statistics as the leading organ of national statistical work, responsible for leading all basic statistical work such as finance, economy, culture, education, health and social conditions, laying the foundation for establishing a unified, systematic and scientific statistical work system in an organized and leading manner throughout the country. Subsequently, central departments and local governments at all levels also quickly established statistical agencies or equipped full-time statisticians.
From 1949 to 1952, under the leadership of the Financial and Economic Committee of the State Council, China carried out the national survey of industrial and mining enterprises (the first national industrial survey) and held the national financial and economic statistics conference (the first national statistical work conference), and successively established the statistical system of periodic reports and annual reports of public and public-private joint industrial and mining enterprises, agricultural and forestry production, capital construction, state-owned trade, material supply, labor wages, transportation, posts and telecommunications, and so on, which initially formed a unified national system.
After the establishment of the National Bureau of Statistics, various statistical reporting systems have been continuously improved and perfected, and a series of statistical investigations have been carried out, such as the gross industrial and agricultural output value and labor employment survey, the first national census, and the household survey of farmers and workers, and important statistical standards have been issued, such as the Provisions on Urban-Rural Division Standards. At the same time, on the basis of drawing lessons from the experience of the Soviet Union, the material product balance table system (MPS) was introduced.
During this period, statistical work provided a lot of data for the formulation, implementation and smooth completion of the "First Five-Year Plan" of the national economy and played a fundamental role.
Second, the development of statistical work in twists and turns (1958-1978)
The "Great Leap Forward" movement that began in 1958 severely impacted the statistical work. In 1962, in order to restore the principle of centralized and unified statistical work that was destroyed during the Great Leap Forward, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council made the "Decision on Strengthening Statistical Work" (known as the "April 4th Decision" in history), demanding the establishment of a centralized and unified statistical system, in which statistical departments at all levels are under the vertical leadership of the National Bureau of Statistics in their professional work, and the establishment, cadres and funds are managed by the national statistical system in a unified way, and they are responsible at different levels (that is, "one vertical and three unified"). The "April 4th Decision" laid a solid foundation for restoring the truthfulness and accuracy of statistical work and strengthening the centralized and unified leadership of statistical work.
From 1961 to 1965, the State Council approved the establishment of a national agricultural output investigation team with 900 people directly under the leadership of the National Bureau of Statistics and investigation teams stationed in provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities); Promulgate the "Regulations on the Trial Implementation of Statistical Work", and make it clear that the people’s governments at or above the county level shall set up separate statistical institutions; The second national census was conducted, a national statistical index system covering all sectors of the national economy was established, and a national economic balance table was compiled. A centralized and unified national statistical system was initially established to provide statistical support for economic and social development during the adjustment period.
After the "Cultural Revolution" began in 1966, the statistical cause suffered a heavy blow. The vast majority of statistical institutions in China have been merged or revoked, a large number of statisticians have been dissolved or delegated to the "May 7th Cadre School" for work, and a large number of statistical data have been lost or destroyed, and the national comprehensive statistics have almost been interrupted. In June 1970, the National Bureau of Statistics was abolished, leaving only 14 people engaged in statistical work in the production group of the former State Planning Commission.
With the care of the central leading comrades, the statistical work has been gradually restored. In 1974, the former Statistics Group of the State Planning Commission was upgraded to the "Statistics Bureau", and some local statistical agencies were also restored. In 1975, the former Statistics Bureau of the State Planning Commission held a symposium on statistical work in 15 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in the name of "People’s Republic of China (PRC) National Bureau of Statistics" to make advance plans for the comprehensive recovery of statistical work.
During this period, although the statistical work suffered setbacks successively, many important statistical data were collected and preserved, which provided data and information reference for the decision-making of party committees, governments and departments at all levels.
Three, the rapid recovery of statistics (1978-1992)
On February 9, 1978, the State Council approved the Report on Rectifying and Strengthening Statistical Work issued by the former State Planning Commission, and agreed to restore the National Bureau of Statistics to the State Council. In December, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party was successfully held, and the focus of the whole party’s work shifted to socialist modernization. The statistical department has revived its vitality, actively adapted to the needs of national modernization, strived to change the direction of statistical investigation, constantly adjusted its working mechanism and mode, and entered a stage of rapid development.
In 1979, the State Council issued the Decision on Strengthening Statistical Work and Enriching Statistical Institutions, emphasizing the need to establish a strong statistical system and implement a unified leadership and hierarchical management system.
In 1983, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed the Statistics Law of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Statistics Law), which was the first statistical law promulgated since the founding of New China, marking the beginning of the rule of law in government statistics in China.
In 1984, the State Council issued the Decision on Strengthening Statistical Work, which clearly put forward six tasks of statistical modernization, demanding to strengthen the modernization of statistical work and establish and improve a centralized, unified and powerful statistical system. In 1989, the State Council approved the Report of the National Bureau of Statistics on Strengthening Statistical Work and Giving Full Play to the Role of Statistical Supervision, and proposed that the statistical department should be built into the main department of social and economic information and the center of national economic accounting, and become an important national consulting and supervision institution.
During this period, the statistical work focused on the service of socialist modernization, based on the three functions of statistical information, consultation and supervision, established a management system of "unified leadership and graded responsibility", issued national standards such as "Classification and Code of National Economic Industries", resumed important investigation items such as rural socio-economic survey, household survey of farmers and workers, and strengthened comprehensive balance, industry, commerce, population and social statistics. A new statistical investigation system was established in the fields of balance of payments, tourism, environmental protection, etc., the second national industrial census and the third and fourth national population censuses were carried out, the Statistical Yearbook of China was published for the first time, and the statistical informatization construction was started, and all statistical reforms and constructions were comprehensively promoted, which laid a solid foundation for promoting the modernization of statistical work.
Fourth, the overall transition of the statistical system (1992-2002)
After Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Talks and the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has accelerated the pace of reform, opening up and modernization, set the reform goal of the socialist market economic system, and the statistical work environment and demand have undergone major changes, which urgently requires the establishment of a statistical investigation system that is compatible with the basic national conditions and the socialist market economic system.
The statistical department adapts to the needs of reform and promotes the overall transition of China’s national economic accounting system to the national accounts system (SNA). In 1992, the State Council approved the formal implementation of the new national economic accounting system. In 1993, the basic framework of national and provincial accounting systems was initially established. In December, 2002, the National Bureau of Statistics and other eight ministries and commissions jointly issued a document to organize the implementation of China National Economic Accounting System (2002) throughout the country, marking the overall transition of China’s national economic accounting system to SNA.
In July, 1994, the State Council approved the "Request for Instructions on Establishing a National Census System Reform Statistical Investigation System" issued by the National Bureau of Statistics, which clarified the basic position of census in the whole statistical investigation system, required the implementation of periodic census system, vigorously promoted the application of sampling survey technology, and gradually established the main position of sampling survey in the statistical investigation method system. China’s periodic census has a relatively clear system, and the sampling survey method has been widely used in the statistical work of agricultural output, enterprises below scale and quota, prices, urban and rural households, population and labor force.
On May 15th, 1996, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed the Decision on Amending the Statistics Law of the People’s Republic of China. Stopping fraud is the purpose of this revision of the Statistics Law. This revision further standardizes the norms of statistical activities under the conditions of socialist market economy, and establishes legal norms to prevent, stop and punish fraud and false reporting and exaggeration, which is an important measure to strengthen the rule of law in statistics and develop statistical undertakings in China, and provides legal basis for ensuring the accuracy and timeliness of statistical data, giving play to the role of statistical information, consultation and supervision, and better serving the development of socialist market economy.
During this period, the statistical department constantly emancipated its mind, resolutely broke the statistical thinking pattern formed during the planned economy period, adhered to the statistical strategic policy of "relying on science and technology, relying on the legal system, and ultimately relying on talents", accelerated the pace of statistical reform and statistical modernization, and strived to promote the reform of China’s statistical investigation system and method system, and gradually established a statistical investigation method system based on periodic census and with regular sampling surveys as the main body. Vigorously promote the application of statistical information technology, continuously expand and extend the depth and breadth of statistical services, and initially establish a statistical system adapted to the socialist market economic system, laying a solid foundation for the faster development of statistical undertakings in the 21st century.
V. Continuous improvement of statistical system (2002-2012)
After the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has entered a new development stage of building a well-off society in an all-round way and accelerating socialist modernization. In order to implement the requirements of the Third Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee on "improving the statistical system", the National Bureau of Statistics integrated three investigation teams in rural areas, cities and enterprises in 2005 to form a national investigation team with vertical management.
The National Bureau of Statistics improved the statistical investigation system and methods, and adjusted the national census items and cycle arrangements. The National Economic Census Regulations, the National Agricultural Census Regulations and the National Population Census Regulations were promulgated and implemented in September 2004, August 2006 and May 2010 respectively, and the first and second national economic censuses, the second national agricultural census and the sixth national population census were successively carried out. Establish ring-on-ring statistics, national labor force survey system, migrant workers’ statistical monitoring survey system and urban private unit wage statistics system, improve real estate price statistics, reform the accounting method of added value of construction industry, strengthen service industry statistics, conduct procurement manager surveys, and improve scientific and technological innovation statistics and cultural industry statistics.
The National Bureau of Statistics has vigorously promoted the openness and transparency of statistics. Since 2010, it has held the "China Statistics Open Day" every year, increased the intensity of information disclosure, publicized the system, methods and data production process, and improved the statistical information release mechanism. In 2011, the National Bureau of Statistics started the construction of the "four major projects" of statistics. In 2012, the online direct reporting of "enterprise one set of tables" was launched nationwide, and the statistical production mode has undergone fundamental changes.
During this period, the statistical department thoroughly practiced Scientific Outlook on Development, with the central task of improving statistical ability, improving statistical data quality and improving the credibility of government statistics, solidly carried out various statistical surveys and vigorously promoted the construction of service-oriented statistics, which provided reliable statistical support for promoting scientific development, promoting social harmony and building a well-off society in an all-round way.
Six, accelerate the development of statistical reform (2012-present)
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has attached great importance to statistical work, and the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader has made many important speeches and instructions on strengthening and improving statistical work. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put forward three major accounting reform tasks: accelerating the establishment of a unified national economic accounting system, compiling national and local balance sheets, and exploring the compilation of natural resources balance sheets. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made a major deployment of "improving the statistical system". The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee proposed to promote the reform of statistical modernization. The Central Committee has issued a number of important documents related to the reform and development of statistical undertakings, such as Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Statistical Management System to Improve the Authenticity of Statistical Data, Suggested Measures for the Punishment of Persons Responsible for Statistical Violations, Provisions on Preventing and Punishing Statistical Falsification and Fraudulent Supervision, and Opinions on Playing the Role of Statistical Supervision More Effectively, which will draw a blueprint and lead the statistical work in the new era.
The statistical department unswervingly implements the decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, accelerates the construction of a statistical management system that is compatible with the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, promotes the strengthening of the assessment and accountability of leading cadres’ statistical work, and continuously deepens and improves the statistical management system of "unified leadership and graded responsibility"; Strengthen and improve the statistical work of departments and actively promote the reform of the national investigation team; Deepen the reform of national economic accounting and formally implement regional GDP accounting; Prepare national and local balance sheets, explore the preparation of natural balance sheets, implement quarterly GDP accounting reform, and implement China National Economic Accounting System (2016); Successfully completed the third and fourth national economic census, the third national agricultural census, the seventh national population census, the national poverty alleviation census and other major national conditions and national strength surveys; Strive to build a statistical system that promotes high-quality development, establish a statistical index system that reflects the transformation and upgrading of quality and efficiency, and establish and improve the "three new" statistics; Deepen the reform of key areas, strengthen the top-level design of statistics, carry out statistical monitoring of migrant workers’ citizenization and industrial strategic emerging industries, strengthen service industry, trade and economy, and social statistics, implement the reform of urban and rural household survey integration and the reform of data collection methods, reform and improve agriculture, employment, labor wages, investment, scientific and technological innovation, women and children statistics, establish and improve statistics on climate change and cultural industries, and promote strategic cooperation in statistical reform and innovation between provinces and ministries; We will comprehensively promote statistics and rule the country according to law, set up a statistical law enforcement supervision bureau, carry out statistical inspectors, and strengthen statistical law enforcement inspections.Strengthening the popularization of statistical legislation, the situation of not daring, unable and unwilling to falsify statistics is taking shape; Accelerate the integration of informatization and statistics, make full use of modern information, remote sensing and other spatial information technologies, and promote the application of big data in statistical work. The whole process of statistical work is electronic, networked and clouded, and the new production mode of "traditional investigation+big data" is advanced in depth.
During this period, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee, the statistical departments made concerted efforts to seek development, overcome difficulties and promote reform, and constantly improved quality. The role of "barometer", "measuring instrument", "indicator" and "weather vane" in statistical work was fully exerted, which provided a strong statistical guarantee for our party to unite and lead the people of the whole country to promote the overall layout of "five in one", coordinate and promote the "four comprehensive" strategic layout, and build a well-off society in an all-round way.
The new era and new journey put forward new and higher requirements for statistical work. Statisticians will thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th Party Congress, carry out in-depth education on studying and implementing the theme of Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the new era, comprehensively implement the major decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core, deeply understand the decisive significance of "two establishment", strengthen "four consciousnesses", strengthen "four self-confidence" and achieve "two maintenance". Adhere to and strengthen the Party’s overall leadership over statistical work, emancipate the mind, seek truth from facts, be realistic and pragmatic, forge ahead with determination, focus on improving the quality of statistical data, constantly push forward the reform of statistical modernization, and contribute statistical power to building a socialist modernized country and promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in an all-round way.