Large bureaucracies tend to propagate layer upon layer of rules, until it becomes simply impossible for anyone, even those inside the the bureaucracy, to comply with every rule. For those in authority this is a win-win situation. They may honestly report to their superiors that the superiors' concerns of the moment have been addressed by implementation of a new rule, If something goes wrong they know they can punish a subordinate for failing to follow the rules -- because it is impossible to follow all of the rules -- and if they really want to end the career of a subordinate they can find some rule or another that was not followed.
If you think that is unique to China you have never studied the Soviet Union. And if you think it does not go on in this country, watch 
where a retired U.S. Army Colonel explores the ramifications of the fact that, for at least many units, the sum total of the number of days of Army mandated training per year exceeds, by a matter of weeks, the number of days the Army makes available for training.
The percentage of infantry companies and artillery batteries completing 100% of mandatory training is 0, because it simply cannot be done. But the percentage of such units reporting that they have failed to complete 100% of mandatory training is also 0, or very nearly so.
The Colonel makes it clear that he noticed the phenomena while on active duty, but did not research it until he retired. In off the record group sessions the commanders of these units went from "I've never lied" to "I've never knowingly turned in false numbers" to "Yeah, you've gotta lie. You cannot do all of the training, much less do all of the training and have your unit ready to deploy. The battalion commander knows I'm lying. The division commander knows I'm lying. They lied when they were company/battery commanders. But it is not allowed to report that you did as much training as you reasonably could, and skipped the rest. If I don't lie to them they will relieve me and find someone who will."
But, once you compel your company grade officers to lie, how do you restrict what they lie about? Some of these officers admitted they routinely lied on after action reports. Most were appalled by such behavior. But if you have an institution that not only tolerates, but mandates, lying, while piously condemning it, how do you distinguish mandatory lies from prohibited lies?