KW: One thing I have observed about U.S. commentary about anything to do with Russia or China is just how biased the reporting is, even from commentators I have respect for, it is always negatively biased against these two countries almost like there is an ‘internal irrational switch’ inbuilt in every American no matter how neutral and open minded he/she may be so that they get lost in the trees when walking in the woods. I wonder if this article from Jim Rickards he quotes Bloomberg  and this is along similar lines although I am sure there is a lot of logic in his thinking here.

The end stages of the recent U.S. election cycle were filled with charges of “fake news.” At first, the term was applied by the mainstream media to propaganda put out by Russia intelligence services. Such propaganda can be channeled through fringe news outlets or blogs and disguised to look like legitimate reporting. Once it “goes viral,” the original source is forgotten and the “news” becomes an accepted fact, like the urban legend about alligators in New York City sewers. Then the fake news charge boomeranged on the mainstream media. CNN and The New York Times were accused of putting out fake news of their own, including a steady stream of predictions that Hillary Clinton would win the election with ease. Now China has its own version of fake news, but it’s called fake data. The financial situation in the Chinese province of Liaoning was so bad that officials there resorted to inflating their revenues by 20% to advance their political careers, but it’s going on all over China. Even Beijing’s GDP growth statistics are fake, because half the Chinese investment component is wasted on ghost cities and white elephant infrastructure that can never be even mildly productive, let alone pay for itself. If you can’t trust government and you can’t trust the media, whom can you trust? Stick with independent analysis and your own common sense. Read the article from Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-18/rustbelt-china-province-admits-it-faked-fiscal-data-from-2011-14