I've mentioned this before: China's official GDP data are a bit suss. So I created my alternate GDP indicator using cement production, the volume of retail sales, import volumes, electricity generation, and the average of the official (NBS) and the S&P Global PMI indices. In the chart below, I compare this with my China leading index, plotted with a 9-month lag. (Note that the lags are different during the covid lock-downs and recoveries, as you'd expect)
Moral of the tale: China's growth has picked up, but looks likely to slow from here on.
This is a serious problem for the Chinese authorities. The traditional stimulus method is to shovel lots of support into housing and construction. They may yet do that, but there is a demographic challenge which has exacerbated the problems caused by the overbuilding which has already taken place. And Chinese consumers are wary. Many are paying mortgages for flats which will never be built. House prices briefly rallied, but are falling again.
Are the data sound? Who knows? But my approach is to look at lots of time series and to try and detect inconsistencies between them. Those inconsistencies aren't necessarily caused by data manipulation, but whatever causes them, if you look at more time series instead of one or two, you're more likely to get a realistic picture of what is happening. So, yes, I think Chinese growth (properly measured) has picked up but that it will slow over the next 3 quarters.
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