WASHINGTON – It should come as no surprise that the People’s Republic of China is not entirely forthright when it comes to releasing accurate internal data. The United States publishes most of its economic figures for the world to see. Some estimates – such as unemployment rates – maintain antiquated criteria to help the job situation in the U.S. look better than it actually is, but all countries do the same thing.

However, in China, the government simply lies about any data that it believes may undermine the regime in Beijing.

According to Bloomberg News, the most recent casualty of China’s data manipulation is domestic indicators on inflation, consumer prices, and housing.

If you could ask a Chinese citizen to describe the inflationary pressures they are feeling some would talk about prices on some goods rising as much as 50 percent in the past year. In the face of this, China’s official data says that inflation from July 2009 to July 2010 was just 3.3 percent. In a nation with double-digit growth, inflation should be perhaps twice as high.

The citizens most at risk are Chinese people living in the coastal boom towns. Monumental amounts of private and federal investment dollars have poured into these towns in the past decade. In one of the great tragedies of economics, as money becomes more plentiful the price of goods also tends to rise. In the end, the people who were barely getting by before are still barely getting by despite a nominal change in income.

Americans have had to deal with this plight for generations. It seems like China’s unbridled growth may be having a similar effect on its people today.

One thing that the Chinese people have going for them is that their government has true direction. When the American people fell victim to uncontrolled inflation during the past few years our government did nothing to offset the effects. Making matters worse inflation typically accompanies economic growth, but in the United States the so-called “growth” has benefitted virtually no one. If you were rich you are probably richer. If you were poor you are probably poorer – and you are probably teetering on the verge of unemployment.

In China, the economic growth is real even if the government statistics are not. China makes nearly $300 billion extra every year from trade with the U.S. alone. The U.S., meanwhile, loses that much to China.

When push comes to shove Beijing has stockpiled the monetary resources to get its citizenry out of a almost any jam. Americans have the misfortune of being told by both parties to simply figure solutions out for themselves and let the fictional invisible hand of market economics take the wheel.

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