A lot of Chinese people tell me they believe the population numbers are wrong because of the psychology of the people that run the Provinces.
Central Government Budgets directed to the Provinces are dictated by what the Provinces tell the Central Government.
The Provinces either overstate or understate economic figures depending on how much they think they can either milk out of the Central Government or how much they can try and maintain the previous year's allocation/s.
Most of the Chinese people that follow economic activity agree that the population is very much overstated for the reasons above.
Would be interesting to know what goes on at a Government level in India.................. even here in Australia ................. however the lies are told by the Government to the People.
There's a Chinese lady that does economic research and projections. She bases a lot of her forward predictions of economic activity on electricity usage and night time lighting all around the world (monitored by satellites) to predict economic activity.
Can't remember her name at this moment, but she gave some interesting insights into human activities that indicate consumption and production and behaviour outcomes.
