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A total of 97 Chinese companies have been punished and listed on the dishonesty list due to statistical data fraud since 2017, after the government intensified inspections on statistical law enforcement, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement on its website on Monday. 
As the nation started the statistical system this year and showed zero tolerance for statistical fraud, the time of governing statistical work under the rules of laws has come, an expert said, noting that this will result in the authenticity of the statistics for policy and decision-making.
NBS said that 97 companies in several provinces had admitted to their statistical data fraud for their own interests. They had been punished by governmental departments and have been listed on the dishonesty list, which is published on national credit platforms.
The move greatly reflects the determination of the State to increase the intensity of statistical enforcement, and keep the consistency between words and deeds, Ye Qing, deputy director of the statistics bureau of Central China's Hubei Province, told the Global Times on Monday.
Ye said that this investigation and punishment made known to the public is to help people understand that the State is serious about statistical enforcement and China will strictly punish acts of fraud instead of letting fraudulent acts go easily.
The NBS said that it has continuously increased the intensity of statistical law enforcement inspections since 2017, and recommended that local authorities should report companies' illegal behavior to provincial statistics institutions, and file cases on them to launch investigations.
China has been attaching importance to statistical law enforcement since 2016, Ye added. "The authenticity of the statistics is the basis of policy making and decision-making," Ye said, "people will now take the statistics and related laws and regulations seriously."
According to the list NBS published on Monday, there are still 43 companies awaiting their admissions to go public, while the other 54 companies have been removed from the list after their publicity period has expired and have not committed statistics fraud since.
"Ten years ago, nobody took statistical laws and regulations seriously. The time for governing statistical work under the rules of laws has come," Ye said.