it's has been well established that chinese has never been good(serious) at numbers (and thus science), some even say so at facts. throughout china's history, morality is #1, facts and numbers are to be cherry picked based on one's belief.
sadly, it's still continuing, i am worried we may never know how many died during cultural revolution, 1989...or i am sure some one will say so what, ccp is evil who cares the exact number.