Serious question: how reliable are the figures from China? How can we trust they aren't fudging the numbers, either at the local level or the national level?
Its based on energy use etc and I believe satellite spectrometetry, so there are massive margins of error but the general trends are pretty hard to hide.
What is there to gain from fudging these numbers?
Continued economic growth at the increased rates that non-renewable energy sources provide, without the external disapproval/sanctions that come with them.