If you want to play tricks again, there is no chance.
On the evening of March 17, CCTV's "Focus Interview" broadcast the latest investigation situation in Leiyang, Hunan Province, reporting on the local incident of "exaggerating data and falsely reporting the output value of the "10 billion industrial park" and turning it into a "slogan project."
According to surveys, in order to cultivate new driving forces and achieve industrial breakthroughs, this county-level city will determine its leading industries in 2021 and formally propose to build a "10 billion-level stroller industrial park", claiming that the annual output value will exceed 10 billion yuan after the project is completed.
Data shows that Leiyang's total GDP in 2020 is 39.46 billion yuan, and the tens of billions industry target is equivalent to 25.34% of the total economy. To this end, the local government has specially formulated the "Implementation Plan for the Leiyang Baby Car Industrial Park", which stipulates a total investment of 6 billion yuan in five years, and 2 billion yuan of investment and 45 companies will be introduced by 2025.
However, the so-called "baby carriage industrial park" is just a slogan project. In fact, the enterprise occupancy rate is less than 10%, the reported output value is as high as 347 million yuan, and the actual output value is only 21.65 million yuan. The official announcement states that more than 60 companies have settled in, but only 1 baby products company and 4 supporting small and micro enterprises have actually settled in.
The plan formulated by the government is just a "paper article" to deal with inspections, with figures falsified from beginning to end, just to make the report look good and the political achievements to be outstanding. This kind of "slogan project" has ruined public morals, misled decision-making, and ruined the government's credibility.
In fact, in October last year, the Central Level Special Working Mechanism Office to rectify formalism and reduce the burden on the grassroots, together with the General Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, specifically named the typical problems of rectifying formalism to reduce the burden on the grassroots. False reporting of the output value of the stroller industrial park in Leiyang City, Hunan was one of them.
And just in January this year, the office and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection reported three typical problems of rectifying formalism to reduce the burden on the grassroots:
1. Haicheng, Liaoning "buys ranking" Haicheng. In June 2024, Haicheng spent 4.98 million yuan to sign a "County Economy and New Quality Productivity Research Comprehensive Services" consulting project contract with a "Top 100 Counties" list evaluation agency. Through the agency, it improved the subjective index score in the 2025 list evaluation, adjusting Haicheng from the 118th in the objective index score to the 91st in the comprehensive score.
2. There was "blind command" in the assessment of funds introduced from outside the province, and the Henan Department of Commerce forced the grassroots to collectively falsify. Because the indicators are falsely high and they are required to increase year by year, the grassroots are forced to take action to defraud the company. In the first 11 months of 2025, Wuyang County falsely reported more than 7 billion, Zhecheng County falsely reported more than 4 billion, and one project in Zhengzhou Guancheng District falsely reported 960 million.
3. Relevant departments in Yunnan rank 129 counties every quarter and engage in "report card" competitions. The grassroots cannot bear the pressure and can only "inject water" to deal with it – 34 companies in Shuangjiang County, Lincang, falsely reported an output value of 3.5 billion in three years, and 284 projects in Shuangbai County, Chuxiong fabricated false materials and falsely reported investments of more than 4 billion.
These phenomena that have been named and dealt with are essentially manifestations of the dysfunctional operation of power. So, where is the root cause?
First of all, the root cause is a "calcium deficiency" in the view of political performance: some localities and departments have a distorted view of political performance, and the work of reducing burdens has gone through the motions. They believe that GDP is political performance, rankings are face, and data is hat. Therefore, regardless of whether it is true or not, first make the number bigger; no matter whether it is good or not, first make the scene bigger.
Secondly, there is also a problem with the "baton" of assessment. In some places, superiors evaluate investment and output value, and report rankings every quarter. The grassroots cadres took a look: if they fail to complete the tasks and will be criticized, then they can only "inject water". Therefore, investment and output values are falsely reported, and the data becomes "plasticine", which can be pinched as much as you want.
Furthermore, there is the "firewall" of supervision, which is in name only. As we all know, internal supervision often "turns a blind eye" or even "closes both eyes". It wasn't until the superiors reported it and the media exposed it that they pretended to "take it seriously."
We must know that combating formalism is a key step in modernizing national governance. The central government is gradually blocking the crooked path of formalism.
First of all, we must move towards "abnormal assessment". Nowadays, in some assessments, the indicator settings are like "the goddess scatters flowers", which is comprehensive but divorced from reality. In fact, the real achievements are not in the financial statements, but in the smiles of the people. The central government has also made it clear: "The key to measuring the performance of cadres is to see how good the public's reputation is" and "taking serving the people and benefiting the people as the most important political achievements."
Second, cut off the "power of mutation". Formalism means "virtual work, but it can gain "real benefits" – promotion, honors, resources. Now that the central government is serious about making "virtual work", not only will there be no benefits, but there will also be a price to pay. For example, currently, Leiyang City has launched a special campaign to rectify the work style of cadres, and has also launched an accountability mechanism for issues such as "exaggerated data".
Third, "burden reduction" should be transformed from a campaign-style rectification into an institutionalized norm. At the end of 2023, the central government began to establish a "notification and exposure mechanism for typical negative cases to reduce the burden on the grassroots", and a regular exposure system has been formed so far. In August 2025, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council also issued the full text of "Several Provisions on Combating Formalism to Reduce Burdens on the Grassroots". This is the first time that institutional norms to reduce the burden on the grassroots have been formulated and introduced in the form of intra-party regulations: This is more effective than 10,000 mobilizations.
Overall, the central government has continuously reported typical cases, and the intensity of processing has been continuously increased, sending a clear signal: the space for formalism and bureaucracy is rapidly shrinking, and the era of "rejuvenating the country through hard work" is coming. (Ma Jiangbo)
