UGLY NUMBERS lurk in the books of China’s local governments. An annual audit released on June 24th showed that over 40bn yuan ($6bn) of state pension funds were misappropriated last year in 13 of 25 provinces looked at. (There may be more dodgy practices but the auditors only have the resources to focus on certain bits of the country each year.) Among other things, the money was used to repay government debts. Another 4bn yuan was lifted from a programme to pay for refurbishing schools. And billions more were diverted away from farming subsidies. Local officials “are always stealing our money”, said one angry commenter on Weibo, a social-media platform. “It’s like trusting the mice to look after our rice,” wrote another.