[Biweekly Symposium] No. 579: How the Chinese Government Opens Its Statistics to the Academia.

Lecturer: XU Xianchun

Host: QIN Sidao

Commentators: HAN Chaohua, ZHAN Jiang, LI Shuang, WU Qing

Professor XU Xianchun introduced the system of state statistics that includes the national bureau of statistics and other government departments, such as People’s Bank of China, General Administration of Customs, and State Administration of Foreign Exchange, etc.. Regular censuses are taken for various purposes in order to obtain massive microeconomics data. Professor XU Xianchun stressed that only by contract and very limited official channels for specific purposes of research are scholars allowed access to such data. A systematic flaw exists, unlike in European countries and the US, Chinese scholars are normally denied of easy access to obtain, collect, or analysis of the statistical data. However, more efforts are being taken to establish a platform to not only consolidate, collect, and catalogue, but also share, make access to, and facilitate easy analysis by Chinese scholars online. 

Unirule Biweekly Symposium has been serving the Chinese public as an open platform for academic exchange.