The Communist Party of China (CPC) exhibits a pattern of deliberate withholding, manipulation, and falsification of official government data designed to restrict information to outside observers and artificially inflate its reputation and global standing, revealed the China Transparency Report 2024 by Washington-based think tank The Heritage Foundation (THF).
“While some data can be verified with some accuracy, such as trade figures or military assets, the CPC deliberately restricts a wide range of data,” Andrés Harding, research assistant at THF Asian Studies Center and one of the report’s authors, told Diálogo on March 12. “This is especially true with human rights information as the CPC attempts to cover up, for example, its genocide of Muslim minorities in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang.”
Researchers identified this deliberate pattern in eight key sectors: economy, influence operations, military, overseas investment, politics, technology, energy, and environment. While they stress that all government administrations face transparency challenges, the difficulties presented by the CPC are “particularly alarming.”
“The nature of the Chinese communist system exacerbates the lack of transparency. Because control is its top priority, the CPC benefits from suppressing data that does not match its narratives,” the report said.
Researchers found that the CPC intentionally restricts public access to political and economic data, so that observers rely more on speculation and unsubstantiated reports from supposed “party members” talking to the media.
When investors were hoping for more clarity on China’s economic roadmap to 2024, the head of China’s economy, Premier Li Qiang, canceled the annual press conference at the close of the National People’s Congress session. This is the first time this has happened in 30 years, closing the only moderately free space for journalists to talk to the top Chinese official, Colombian newspaper El Tiempo reported on March 4.
“The Chinese government publishes fewer statistics, census data, and policy documents, becoming less and less transparent not only to its domestic audience, but also to foreign analysts,” Kara Němečková, an analyst with China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe, a think tank that monitors Chinese activities from Prague, Czech Republic, told Diálogo. “Beijing’s restriction of access to information is related to the trend toward securitization, where more and more issues are subject to national security.”
Another area where THF identifies serious gaps in the data provided by Beijing relates to influence operations. These seek to modify popular perceptions through a wide variety of tools, ranging from social networks and cultural programs to military psychological operations, Argentine news site Infobae reported.
CPC influence operations may be more focused on nations where there is limited access to international media and significant exposure to Chinese state media and its affiliates, THF notes. As such, researchers believe it is critical to help those countries counter Chinese influence as they carry weight in the context of multilateral agreements.
In exploring the environmental issue, China stands out for having missed its target to reduce highly harmful gases for the planet by 2023. Its energy activity increased carbon emissions by 5.2, revealed a February 22 report by Carbon Brief, a United Kingdom environmental think tank.
“While China claims to be a world leader on environmental issues, our report points out how China understates its coal consumption in its official government statistics and continues to build new coal-fired power plants,” Harding says. “This approach is part of the CPC’s strategy to present itself as a global partner, when in fact it is contributing, in large part, to the problems it claims to be trying to solve.”
“China controls the narrative and its image abroad,” adds Němečková. “For example, Beijing restricts information when it presents an unflattering picture of its economy and development prospects.”
The lack of transparency that permeates foreign investments from China is also a cause for concern as, according to THF, they serve to achieve the CPC’s goals. Here they highlight the case of Huawei, whose technologies pose significant security risks, as it gives the CPC access to critical systems.
One of the most recent countries to stop its participation in tenders for the development of 5G was Costa Rica, as China is not a signatory to the convention on cybercrime known as the Budapest Convention, Costa Rican media CRHoy reported on March 9.
“There is concern about the prospect of China accessing personal data on computers and cell phones, monitoring through television circuits, and meddling with smart devices in homes,” Tenzin Dalha, a researcher at the India-based think tank Tibet Policy Institute, wrote in Cuban news site 14 y medio. “China is perfecting a vast network of real-time sensor technologies such as drones, remote sensing, and GPS location, along with data mining and the implementation of a new social credit system. These technologies endow the state with unprecedented surveillance powers.”
“Whether it’s energy and environment, or economics and human rights, the CPC is extremely deliberate about what information it makes available and what information it suppresses,” Dalha emphasized. “Make no mistake. The CPC’s withholding, manipulation, and falsification of data is deliberate.”