China is lucky that it can print money and fudge some numbers.
As for "fudging some numbers" - economic data is all surveys and samples. Methodologies are "revised" regularly ostensibly to "better capture the reality". You have the subtle ones like inflation baskets (CPI), and survey for manufacturing or services (PMI) and the less subtle ones like 2015 India redoing their GDP methodology and finding an extra 1.5% a year down the back of the sofa.
It doesn't exactly take a deep dive into the field to see it is not limited to BRICS either.