In China, there are two “different sets of books” depicting the state of the country’s economy. One set conforms to the official line promulgated by the ruling Communist Party, but consists of fake data. This version is made public. The other set, meanwhile, contains the real data. But this set can only be accessed by officials or otherwise be bought on the black market. That’s according to Christopher Balding, who taught economics at Peking University business school in Shenzhen for nine years until 2018. That year, Balding lost his post at the university aftering voicing concerns about Beijing’s censorship practices. He then left China citing concerns for his safety. While most people are familiar with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) top-down censorship constricting the populace’s freedom of expression and access to information, they may not realize the extent of censorship within the regime’s sprawling bureaucracy itself, Balding, who now resides …