The State Council has recently distributed the Circular on Launching the Fourth National Economic Census (the "Circular").
The Circular states that, the 4th national economic census will cover all legal persons, units engaging in industrial activities and privately-owned businesses, involved in the secondary and tertiary industries within the territory of China. What is to be collected in the census includes basic situations, organizational structure, staff expenses, production capacity, financial status, production, operating and service activities, consumption of energy, research and development activities, informatization construction, deals concluded on e-commerce platforms, etc. of targets surveyed. The standard date for the forthcoming census falls on December 31, 2018 and periodic materials shall be those generated in the year of 2018. Meanwhile, the Circular requires that any entity or individual shall neither provide false or conceal data, refuse or postpone the submission of data , nor forge or tamper with the data to be collected for the census. Any materials obtained for the census purpose from entities and individuals shall be only used for the census, and cannot serve as the basis for any authorities to impose punishments on targets involved in the census. Furthermore, all state secrets and the targets' trade secrets learnt when the census is underway must be kept confidential.