I think one of the worst things is how lying actually just works, even when people know its a lie. If you just keep hammering away, eventually people give in. I always knew numbers from China were sketchy but one day I fell down a wiki-well and found it really comes down to whatever the CCP wants gets published and becomes truth.
We all know the whole Tiananmen square lies but not sure why I didn't realize that could just as easily extend to things like population and GDP.