A new analysis claims that China has seen millions of COVID-19 cases, not the official figure of around 82,000.

Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) studied coronavirus pandemic data from the last several months and concluded that China's insistence that it has just under 82,000 cases is way below the actual number.

"China's COVID-19 figures are not arithmetically sensible. The Communist Party has deliberately made estimation difficult, but, outside of Wuhan city and Hubei province, cases are low by a factor of 100 or more," a summary of the study reads.

"In late January, Chinese media provided information about migrant outflow from Wuhan before quarantine. Using a lower number than theirs, then conservative figures for migrants' infection rate and time in circulation before national lockdown, generates an estimate of 2.9 million cases."

The AEI is not alone in accusing China of hiding the true numbers from the rest of the world. A U.S. intelligence report given to the White House in late March said China concealed the extent of the outbreak.

The Center for Security Policy, a national security think tank, also said China has been dishonest about the virus, which was first reported in the city of Wuhan in November.

The AEI said in its report that China has the means to keep things secret.

"This is partly due to China's huge population. That population can also hide COVID-19 among tens of millions of respiratory illnesses," the report summary reads. "Along with harshly enforced censorship, the population can hide tens of thousands of deaths."