It's the way they do it. China uses actually counted real numbers. US counts small areas, then multiplies numbers for a wider area. Then cooks the numbers anyway.

Recently a couple US think tanks literally used the argument that China's numbers are unreliable because "authoritarianism" and that really they are collapsing. Then compared to completely made-up US numbers. Then came to the conclusion that the US should fight China in a war, because it will win. Shortly after, the US dispatched more carrier strike groups to China Sea.

The US economy is collapsing, and the elites know it. They are trying to cause confrontations against their rivals to buy themselves time and because in a couple decades they'll probably no longer have the capacity to go against them militarily or diplomatically. Also, to further enrich themselves. This sort of propaganda is aimed at manufacturing consent for war.