Chinese statistics are notorious. Even persons not involved with the study of China are usually aware of the problems associated with the quality and quantity of statistics emanating from Peking, while under normal circumstances persons who make a career out of watching China would only use figures published in a Chinese source or given by a Chinese official with some caveat or reservation. In this age of computers, however, the hunger for figures is so great that occasionally there is a tendency to become careless, grasp at the few figures that may be reported, and assign more validity to them than they merit. After all, one is apt to hear, the Chinese must know; they must have figures for their own use; considering their progress in other fields, surely they were able to establish a statistical system that would provide the necessary data. The contention here is that this is not the case, but that in fact, the Chinese themselves lack much of the statistical data we so desperately seek and that their traditional nonchalance toward accuracy in statistics persists among many of the people presently responsible for record-keeping. Those who anticipate that China's entry into the United Nations will be followed by a significant flow of statistical data are likely to be disappointed. Progress in establishing a viable statistical system has been sporadic and slow. To the Chinese leaders, however, this has not been the problem we expect it to be. Never having known the advantages (and, yes, the frustrations) of a good statistical base, they don't miss it nearly as much as do many of us who look at China from the outside.