Inside China Today

Economic survey turns up forged results in Nanjing villages

In the face of the economic crisis, one county in China has resorted to faking the results of a survey aimed at gauging the economic wellbeing of its residents. Desperate to appear economically strong, Shiqiao County in Pukuo district of Jiangsu province, have handed out ‘model answers’ to residents for a survey conducted by the province’s Bureau of Statistics. Students were reportedly given a day off to answer questions on the phone at home, and residents were promised they would receive 2000 Yuan if they answered the survey ‘correctly’.

Nanjing Morning News reports that Pukou district officials have applied for the district to receive an ‘overall well-off’ standard, a standard which shows the districts residents are economically ‘well-off. To verify this, Jiangsu Bureau of Statistics carried out a phone survey to Pukou residents, and in Shiqiao County, over 96% of residents surveyed gave satisfactory responses.

Villager Hu Zhangjun from Shiqiao County says village officials handed out ‘model answers’ about 20 days ago, which had 16 questions and corresponding responses. He says officials promised that if they answer the survey accordingly, they would receive 2000 Yuan encouragement bonuses.

Another village official admits the County government asked each village official to ‘vouch’ for 30 villagers, and to pay a ‘guarantee fee’ which would only be returned if their villagers ‘passed’ the survey. If they didn’t pass, the money might not be returned, and the village officials might even lose their posts.

The local school also had a day off on the 20th, with students being told by teachers to wait at home in the morning for the survey phone calls and answer them in accordance with the model answers.

The Assistant General Secretary of Shiqiao County, surnamed Zhu, says the satisfaction rate of residents surveyed is 96% and this result is acceptable. He admits that village officials have paid ‘guarantee fees’ and the ‘well-off survey’ is a major event for the district and there cannot be any mishaps.

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