Scepticism has always surrounded Chinese growth data, especially its GDP statistics. The data is released extremely quickly after the end of a quarter and is hardly ever revised, making one wonder if it’s simply invented. Indeed, local and provincial officials are pressured to meet growth quotas handed down by the government, so there’s pressure to bias national GDP data upwards from those providing it. Here, we break down a recent Fed paper, ‘Is China Fudging Its GDP Figures? Evidence from Trading Partner Data’, to reveal a new take on assessing China’s economic activity