Chinese Economic Numbers: Why Does Anyone Care?

I understand that the market reacts to world events. The stock market is very sensitive to emotion. But why does everyone panic when the economic numbers coming from China are bad? They are a Communist country. Their economic numbers are all BS anyway. Do you really think their economy has grown by 7% over the last 10 years as they claim? Really? Compared to what? There is no basis for comparison. They just make this crap up! That is what Communist governments do. My advice? Don't make any decisions based on what is going on in a phony communist economy. It has no relevance in the real world.