Implementing Regulations of the Statistics Law of the People's Republic of China

Order of the State Council of the People's Republic of China No.681

May 28, 2017

The Implementing Regulations of the Statistics Law of the People's Republic of China, which were adopted at the 168th executive meeting of the State Council on April 12, 2017, are hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of August 1, 2017.

Li Keqiang, Premier

Implementing Regulations of the Statistics Law of the People's Republic of China

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 The Implementing Regulations of the Statistics Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") are formulated in accordance with the Statistics Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Statistics Law").

Article 2 No investigation shall be organized or implemented, as long as the statistics can be acquired through access to administrative records. Where statistical needs can be met via sample surveys and major surveys, no overall investigation shall be organized or implemented.

Article 3 Statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level shall strengthen the research on statistical regularity, improve the statistics on emerging industries, perfect economic, social, scientific and technological, resource and environmental statistics and promote the application of modern information technology such as the internet, big data and cloud computing in statistical work, so as to meet the needs of economic and social development.

Article 4 Local people's governments and statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State, define the subjects of the respective entities that are primarily responsible for preventing and punishing statistical fraud and falsification and shall strictly enforce the Statistics Law and the Regulations.
Local people's governments and statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level as well as the principals thereof shall ensure that statistical activities are carried out in accordance with the law, and shall not infringe upon the functions and powers to be exercised independently by statistical agencies and personnel such as statistical investigation, statistical reporting and statistical supervision, illegally interfere with the provision of statistics by objects under statistical investigation, or carry out statistical fraud or falsification.
Objects under statistical investigation shall, in accordance with the Statistics Law and the relevant provisions of the State, provide statistics in an authentic, accurate, complete and timely manner, and refuse and reject falsification and other illegal activities.

Article 5 Statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level shall not organize or implement profit-making statistical investigations.
The State promotes in a planned way statistical investigations and data development that are organized and implemented by statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level via purchase of services from society.

Chapter II Statistical Investigation Projects

Article 6 The main content of departmental and local statistical investigation projects shall not overlap or contradict that of national statistical investigation projects.

Article 7 Organs conducting statistical investigation projects (hereinafter referred to as the "project conductors") shall hold a demonstration of the necessity, feasibility and scientific nature of the items, and solicit comments from the relevant localities, departments, objects under statistical investigation and experts, and such items shall be subject to decisions by project conductors upon collective discussion in accordance with the meeting system.
Important statistical investigation projects shall be carried out on a pilot basis.

Article 8 When applying for examining and approving a statistical investigation project, a project conductor shall submit an application form for the examination and approval of the statistical investigation project, the statistical investigation system of the project and the statement of the funding source for the work to the examination and approval organ in the form of official documents.
Where the application materials are not complete or do not conform to the statutory form, the examination and approval organ shall inform the project conductor of the entire content that is required to be supplemented or corrected at one stroke, and the project conductor shall make supplements or corrections in accordance with the requirements of the examination and approval organ.
If the application materials are complete and conform to the statutory form, the examination and approval organ shall accept the application.

Article 9 Where a statistical investigation project meets the following conditions, the examination and approval organ shall make a written approval decision:
1. the project has a statutory basis or is necessary for public administration and services;
2. the content of the project does not overlap or contradict the main content of an approved or recorded statistical investigation project;
3. the main statistical indicators of the project cannot be obtained through access to administrative records or the processing of existing statistical investigation data;
4. the statistical investigation system is scientific, reasonable and feasible, and conforms to the laws and regulations on statistics;
5. the statistical standards adopted for the project are in line with the relevant provisions of the State; and
6. the project conductor has the ability to implement the project.
If the project does not meet the conditions prescribed in the preceding paragraph, the examination and approval organ shall give amendment opinions to the project conductor; if after amendment, the project still does not meet such conditions, the examination and approval organ shall make a written disapproval decision, with reasons explained.

Article 10 Where the statistical investigation project involves the duties of other departments, the examination and approval organ shall, before making an approval decision, seek the opinions of the relevant departments.

Article 11 The examination and approval organ shall make a decision within 20 days after accepting an application for the examination and approval of a statistical investigation project. If the examination and approval organ cannot make a decision within 20 days, the time limit can be extended by ten days upon approval by the principal of the organ, with the reason for such extension notified to the project conductor.
The time for the amendment of a statistical investigation project by a project conductor shall not be included in the time limit for examination and approval.

Article 12 When applying for the record-filing of a statistical investigation project, a project conductor shall submit an application form for the record-filing of the statistical investigation project and the statistical investigation system of the project to the record-filing organ in the form of official documents.
Where an object under investigation of a statistical investigation project belongs to the system under the jurisdiction of a project conductor, and the main content of the project does not overlap or contradict that of an approved or recorded statistical investigation project, the record-filing organ shall provide a record-filing number in accordance with the law.

Article 13 Where a statistical investigation project is approved or recorded, the examination and approval organ or the record-filing organ shall promptly publish the main content of the statistical investigation project and its statistical investigation system, except for statistical investigation projects involving state secrets.

Article 14 Where a statistical investigation project falls under either of the following circumstances, the examination and approval organ or the record-filing organ shall simplify the examination and approval or record-filing procedures and shorten the time limit:
1. the occurrence of an emergency requires the rapid implementation of statistical investigation; and
2. the content of the statistical investigation system has not been changed and the term of validity of the statistical investigation project needs to be extended upon expiration.

Article 15 The national statistical standards prescribed in Paragraph 2 of Article 17 of the Statistics Law are mandatory standards. People's governments at all levels and statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level shall organize and implement statistical investigation activities in accordance with national statistical standards.
When national statistical standards are formulated, opinions shall be sought from the relevant department under the State Council.

Chapter III Organization and Implementation of Statistical Investigations

Article 16 Statistical agencies and statisticians shall give an explanation of the statutory filing obligations, meaning of main indicators and the relevant filing requirements to objects under statistical investigation, when organizing and implementing statistical investigations.

Article 17 The statistics provided by state organs, enterprises and public institutions, other organizations and other objects under statistical investigation shall be signed by the persons filing the statistics and principals of the entities, and stamped with official seals. Statistics provided by individuals as objects under statistical investigation shall be signed by the individuals themselves, except where no signature or seal is required in the statistical investigation system.
Where objects under statistical investigation provide statistics through networks, the relevant provisions of the State shall apply.

Article 18 Statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level shall take effective network security measures when reporting statistics through networks.

Article 19 Statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level and statisticians of townships and towns shall review the statistics provided by objects under statistical investigation. Where the statistics are incomplete or contain any clear error, they shall be supplemented or corrected by objects under statistical investigation in accordance with the law.

Article 20 The State shall establish and improve a system for monitoring and assessing the quality of statistics and strengthen its monitoring and assessment of important statistics of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government.

Chapter IV Management and Publishing of Statistics

Article 21 Statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level and people's governments of townships and towns shall keep the statistics obtained in statistical investigation in safe custody.
The State has established a statistics disaster backup system.

Article 22 The original data on objects under statistical investigation obtained in statistical investigation shall be kept for at least two years.
Summary statistics shall be kept for at least ten years and important summary statistics shall be kept permanently. Where there are different provisions in laws and regulations, those provisions shall prevail.

Article 23 The original data and statistical ledgers for objects under statistical investigation set up in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State shall be kept for at least two years.

Article 24 The national statistics and statistics of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government obtained by the National Bureau of Statistics in statistical investigations shall be published by the National Bureau of Statistics or by local investigating agencies authorized by the National Bureau of Statistics or the statistical agencies of provincial people's governments.

Article 25 The statistics obtained by the relevant department under the State Council in statistical investigations shall be published by the relevant department under the State Council in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State and the approved or recorded statistical investigation system.
Where the relevant department of a people's government at or above the county level publishes the statistics obtained by it from a statistical investigation, the provisions of the preceding paragraph shall apply mutatis mutandis.

Article 26 Where the published statistics need to be revised in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State, statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level shall publish the revised statistics in a timely manner, and specify the basis and situation of the revision.

Article 27 Statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level shall promptly publish information such as the meanings of the main statistical indicators, the scope of investigation, the methods of investigation, the calculation methods and the sample size of sample surveys, and give an explanation of the statistics.

Article 28 Statistics shall be published in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State. Before statistics are published, no entity or individual shall either provide external parties with the statistics in violation of the relevant provisions of the State, or take advantage of those statistics that have not been published yet to seek illegitimate interests.

Article 29 The data that can identify or infer the identity of an individual object under statistical investigation as prescribed in Article 25 of the Statistical Law includes:
1. data that directly indicates the identity of the individual object under statistical investigation;
2. data that can identify or infer the identity of the individual object under statistical investigation through the relevant information such as a specified address and code, although the identity of the individual object under statistical investigation has not been indicated directly; and
3. summary data that can infer the identity of the individual object under statistical investigation.

Article 30 The data that is obtained in statistical investigations and can identify or infer the identity of individual objects under statistical investigation shall be under strict management in accordance with the law; except for being taken as a basis for statistical law enforcement, it shall not be directly used as a basis for specific administrative acts imposed against objects under statistical investigation, such as administrative licensing and administrative penalties, nor shall it be used for purposes other than the completion of statistical tasks.

Article 31 The State has established and is improving a statistical information sharing mechanism, to achieve the sharing of data obtained by statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level in statistical investigations. Project conductors may jointly use the statistics they obtain for statistical investigation projects that are jointly conducted by them.
The statistical investigation system shall provide for the content, methods, time limit, channels and responsibilities for the sharing of statistics.

Chapter V Statistical Agencies and Statisticians

Article 32 Statistical agencies of local people's governments at or above the county level shall be under the dual leadership of people's governments at the corresponding level and statistical agencies of people's governments at the higher level. In statistical work, they shall be mainly subject to the leadership of the statistical agencies of people's governments at the higher level.
People's governments of townships and towns shall set up statistical positions and staff the positions with full-time or part-time statisticians who shall perform statistical duties and be subject to the direct leadership of the statistical agencies of people's governments at the higher level. Rotation of township and town statistical statisticians shall be subject to the approval of the statistical agencies of people's governments at the county level.
The relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level shall accept the guidance of the statistical agencies of people's governments at the corresponding level in the statistical business.

Article 33 Statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level shall complete statistical investigation tasks assigned by the State, implement the statistical investigation system for national statistical investigation projects, and organize and implement statistical investigation activities of their regions or departments.

Article 34 State organs, enterprises and public institutions and other organizations shall strengthen the basic statistical work and provide the guarantee of organizations, personnel and working conditions for the fulfillment of the statutory obligations for the reporting of statistics.

Article 35 Entities and individuals that have made outstanding contributions and remarkable achievements in statistical work shall be commended and rewarded in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State.

Chapter VI Supervision and Inspection

Article 36 Personnel who are engaged in statistical law enforcement at the statistical agencies of people's governments at or above the county level shall have the necessary knowledge of laws and statistical business, participate in the training on statistical law enforcement, and obtain statistical law enforcement certificates uniformly printed and made by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Article 37 No entity or individual may refuse or hinder the supervision and inspection of the statistical work and the investigation and punishment of statistical violations, nor shall any entity or individual harbor or condone statistical violations.

Article 38 Any entity or individual has the right to report statistical violations to the statistical agencies of people's governments at or above the county level.
Statistical agencies of people's governments at or above the county level shall publish the ways and means for reporting statistical violations, accept, verify and handle reports in accordance with the law, and keep whistleblowers anonymous.

Article 39 Statistical agencies of people's governments at or above the county level are responsible for investigating and punishing statistical violations; where laws and administrative regulations provide otherwise for the investigation and punishment of statistical violations by the relevant departments, such provisions shall prevail.

Chapter VII Legal Liability

Article 40 The following circumstances fall within the failure to detect a serious statistical illegality as prescribed in Item 4 of Article 37 of the Statistics Law, under which the local people's government concerned or the statistical agency or the relevant department of the government concerned and the principal thereof shall be punished by the appointment and dismissal organ or the supervisory organ in accordance with the law, and the matter shall be publicized by the statistical agency of the people's government at the county level or above:
1. substantial or consecutive statistical fraud or falsification occurs within the region, department or entity;
2. the region, department or entity has grossly inaccurate statistics, which should have been discovered; and
3. the region, department or entity has grossly inaccurate statistics, and refuses to make corrections.

Article 41 Where the statistical agency or the relevant department of a people's government at or above the county level organizes and implements a statistical investigation, it shall be ordered to make corrections by the people's government at the corresponding level or the statistical agency of the people's government at the higher level, and the matter shall be publicized; if there is any illegal income, such income shall be confiscated.

Article 42 Where local people's governments at all levels and statistical agencies or the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level, as well as principals thereof, infringe upon the functions and powers of statistical agencies and statisticians with regard to statistical investigation, statistical reporting and statistical supervision to be exercised independently, or incite, instigate or force objects under statistical investigation or other entities or personnel to falsify statistics by issuing documents, arranging meetings or otherwise, they shall be ordered to make corrections by people's governments at the higher level, people's governments at the corresponding level, statistical agencies of people's governments at the higher level or statistical agencies of people's governments at the corresponding level, and the matter shall be publicized.

Article 43 Where the statistical agency or the relevant department of a people's government at or above the county level commits any of the following acts when organizing and implementing statistical investigation activities, it shall be ordered to make corrections by the people's government at the corresponding level, the statistical agency of the people's government at the higher level or the statistical agency of the people's government at the corresponding level, and the matter shall be publicized:
1. illegally making, examining and approving or filing a statistical investigation project;
2. failing to publish the main content of an approved or recorded statistical investigation project and its statistical investigation system;
3. failing to implement national statistical standards;
4. failing to implement the statistical investigation system; and
5. revising the statistics of an individual object under statistical investigation without approval.
Statistical personnel of townships and towns who commit any of the acts set out in Items 3 to 5 of the preceding paragraph shall be ordered to make corrections and be punished in accordance with the law.

Article 43 Where the statistical agency or the relevant department of a people's government at or above the county level publishes statistics in violation of Articles 24 and 25 of the Regulations, it shall be ordered to make corrections by the people's government at the corresponding level, the statistical agency of the people's government at the higher level or the statistical agency of the people's government at the corresponding level, and the matter shall be publicized.

Article 45 Anyone who externally provides statistics that have not been published or seeks illegitimate interests by use of statistics that have not been published in violation of the relevant provisions of the State shall be punished by the appointment and dismissal organ or the supervisory organ in accordance with the law, and the matter shall be publicized by the statistical agency of the people's government at the county level or above.

Article 46 Where a statistical agency or its worker commits any of the following acts, the agency or the worker shall be ordered to make corrections by the people's government at the corresponding level or the statistical agency of the people's government at the higher level, and the matter shall be publicized:
1. refusing or hindering the supervision and inspection of the statistical work and the investigation and handling of statistical violations;
2. harboring and condoning statistical violations;
3. leaking information to entities or individuals committing statistical violations, to help them avoid investigation and punishment;
4. failing to accept, verify and handle reports on statistical violations in accordance with the law; and
5. leaking reports on statistical violations.

Article 47 Where a local people's government at any level or the relevant department of a people's government at or above the county level refuses or hinders statistical supervision and inspection or transfers, conceals, falsifies or destroys original records and vouchers, statistical ledgers, statistical checklists or other relevant evidence and data, it shall be ordered to make corrections by the people's government at the higher level, the statistical agency of the people's government at the higher level or the statistical agency of the people's government at the corresponding level, and the matter shall be publicized.

Article 48 The persons directly in charge and other persons directly liable of local people's governments at all levels and statistical agencies and the relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level that commit any of the illegal acts set out in Articles 41 to 47 of the Regulations shall be punished by the appointment and dismissal organs or supervisory organs in accordance with the law.

Article 49 Where the people's government of a township or town commits any of the acts set out in Paragraph 1 of Article 38 and Paragraph 1 of Article 39 of the Statistical Law, it shall be subject to legal liability in accordance with Articles 38 and 39 of the Statistical Law.

Article 50 The following circumstances are acts with serious circumstances as prescribed in Paragraph 2 of Article 41 of the Statistical Law:
1. using violence or threats to refuse or obstruct statistical investigations or statistical supervision and inspection;
2. refusing or obstructing statistical investigations or statistical supervision and inspection, thereby seriously affecting the normal development of the relevant work;
3. providing unauthentic or incomplete statistics, thereby causing serious consequences or adverse impacts; and
4. being ordered to make corrections three times or more within one year due to any of the illegal acts set out in Paragraph 1 of Article 41 of the Statistical Law.

Article 51 Where a statistical illegal act is suspected of constituting a crime, the statistical agency of a people's government at or above the county level shall refer the case to the judicial organ for handling.

Chapter VIII Supplementary Provisions

Article 52 Where an organization or individual outside the territory of the People's Republic of China needs to conduct statistical investigation activities inside the territory of the People's Republic of China, the organization or individual shall entrust an agency inside the territory of the People's Republic of China which is competent for conducting foreign-related statistical investigations. The qualification of such agency for conducting foreign-related statistical investigations shall be reported for approval in accordance with the law. If the scope of such statistical investigation is confined to the administrative area of a province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government, an application for the qualification shall be examined and approved by the statistical agency of the provincial people's court; if the scope is beyond one province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government, the application shall be examined and approved by the National Bureau of Statistics.
Foreign-related social investigation projects shall be reported for approval in accordance with the law. If the scope of such statistical investigation is confined to the administrative area of a province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government, a foreign-related social investigation project shall be examined and approved by the statistical agency of the provincial people's court; if the scope is beyond one province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government, the project shall be examined and approved by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Article 53 The National Bureau of Statistics or the statistical agency of a provincial people's government has the right to take the measures prescribed in Article 35 of the Statistical Law when conducting an investigation into foreign-related statistical illegal activities.

Article 54 For any entity or individual who is illegally engaged in foreign-related statistical investigation activities, the National Bureau of Statistics or the statistical agency of the provincial people's government concerned shall order the entity or individual to make corrections or to stop the investigation, and confiscate the illegal income, if any; if the illegal income is not less than RMB500,000, the entity or individual shall be fined not less than one times but not more than three times the illegal income; if the illegal income is less than RMB500,000 or there is no illegal income, the entity or individual shall be fined not more than RMB2 million; if the circumstances are serious, the qualification for foreign-related statistical investigation of the entity or individual shall be suspended or canceled, and the approval decision for the foreign-related social investigation project shall be revoked; if a crime is constituted, the entity or individual shall be subject to criminal liability in accordance with the law.

Article 55 The Regulations shall come into force as of August 1, 2017. The Implementing Rules of the Statistics Law of the People's Republic of China, approved by the State Council on January 19, 1987, promulgated by the National Bureau of Statistics on February 15, 1987, approved to be revised by the State Council on June 2, 2000, promulgated by the National Bureau of Statistics on June 15, 2000 and revised by the State Council December 16, 2005, shall be repealed simultaneously.