Sun Shutao, former Party chief of Weihai, Shandong province, expressed regret for fabricating the city's GDP figures to pursue political achievements in an anti-corruption documentary aired on Wednesday night.
"To seek promotion and pursue political achievements, I inflated the GDP to an unreasonably high level, which I deeply regret," said Sun, who also served as a senior political adviser in Shandong. He made the remarks in the fourth episode of the documentary, jointly produced by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the National Commission of Supervision and the China Media Group.
Languishing in prison, Sun admitted he believed that if Weihai's GDP growth lagged, his personal career prospects would be negatively affected.
"By making the data look good, officials could secure faster promotions. But the money wasn't invested in the city's development or in areas where people needed it the most," Sun said. "Such actions are truly disgraceful."
Sun, who served as mayor of Weihai from December 2011 to March 2018, was sentenced to life imprisonment for bribery in June 2024.
During the investigation into his case, authorities received tip-offs suggesting that he had encouraged the fabrication of economic data, according to Meng Qiang, an investigator with China's top anti-graft watchdogs.
"When Sun was mayor of Weihai, the city's annual economic growth often topped the charts among Shandong cities. However, after his departure, its ranking dropped sharply. That raised red flags, prompting further investigation," Meng said.
Investigators later found that much of the data reported by medium- and large-sized enterprises from 2013 to 2017 was inaccurate. Some enterprises admitted they were pressured to inflate figures, while others revealed that authorities had fabricated the data on their behalf.
Sun made it clear in various meetings that he wanted Weihai's GDP growth ranking to improve immediately, according to Xu Dongming, former director of the Weihai Development and Reform Commission.
"Although he didn't explicitly instruct officials to falsify data, his intentions were well understood," Xu said. "GDP growth targets had to meet his satisfaction."
Meng noted that Sun pushed for even higher GDP figures, despite them already being unrealistic, as he sought promotion during this critical period in his career between 2015 and 2017.
"Sun exerted pressure on local officials and publicly criticized those who failed to meet economic growth targets," Meng said.
Zhou Ning, the former head of the Weihai Statistics Bureau, said officials were under immense pressure.
"Some asked enterprises to report inflated data, while others simply fabricated figures themselves," Zhou said.
