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Chinese corruption watchdogs target vehicle privileges

Memo to Chinese officials: Take a bus.

China plans to eliminate official vehicles and drivers costing tens of billions of dollars a year as part of its crackdown on corruption and government waste.

China has long provided officials in the government, Communist Party and security forces with free transportation, a practice dating from the days when China had few private cars and most people got around by bicycle or bus.

Yet abuse of the privilege has aroused public ire amid rising wealth and widespread anger over lavish privileges and official corruption.

The official Xinhua News Agency, in a report yesterday, said a survey last year showed 95 percent of residents in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou supported an "immediate reform of government car use."

The favored measure is to sell most government cars and pay officials monthly transportation subsidies, Xinhua said.

In major cities, vehicles bearing special license plates and windshield tags are a frequent sight, and many are imported luxury sedans or SUVs.

Such vehicles routinely skirt traffic laws or travel with sirens blaring.

By the end of the 1990s, more than 3.5 million government cars were officially registered, Xinhua said.

The cost of maintaining the vast fleet and its drivers is about 300 billion yuan (US$36.5 billion) annually, the report said.

No date for the start of the central government reform push was given, but many local governments have already begun cracking down on official cars.

Last year, Shanghai ordered the return of military and police license plates lent for private use and banned non-emergency vehicles from using sirens.

It also ordered an overall reduction in numbers of official cars, calling that an effort to reduce congestion and maintain the public image of the party and government.

Other cities have already begun auctioning government cars and paying officials transportation subsidies. In many places, government cars must now be domestic models and shared among officials.

The reforms aren't without controversy. Xinhua quoted academics expressing concern over the future of thousands of government drivers who would be thrown out of work, as well as the cost of transportation subsidies.
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