City cracks down on luxury official cars

The government of Yulin, a northern city in Shaanxi province, seized about 153 luxury cars used by officials and executives of State-owned enterprises, and city leaders vowed to end the use of high-end vehicles among its officials.

Since May 15, after an online post revealed that government officials were driving luxury cars, the government has been carrying out a further investigation, and it will make a decision about what to do with the seized luxury vehicles soon, said Xu Zenghong, deputy director of the city's official vehicle control office.

On May 14, an online post featured photos showing 25 luxury cars with vehicle license plates that appeared to indicate they were government workers of Shaanxi province. The post caught the eye of both netizens and the Yulin government.

Hu Zhiqiang, Yulin Party chief, and Lu Zhiyuan, mayor of the city, made instructions on May 15 urging an investigation into luxury official vehicles.

Xu Dengkui, chief officer of the Vehicle Management Office of Yulin City Traffic Police Detachment, said that among the 25 luxury cars exposed online, nine were used by the city's government departments and administrations, two belonged to the city's State-owned enterprises, and others were used by other units and private companies.

"The nine vehicles used by government departments and administrations were Toyota SUVs with the prices ranging from 260,000 yuan to 690,000 yuan ($41,094 to $109,057)," the traffic police officer said.

The prices of the luxury Toyota SUVs were much higher than the standard for vehicles used by city-level governmental officials, according to the regulation made by the central government.

But the traffic police officer denied that the vehicle license plates in the photo could only be used by the government departments and said that the vehicle license plates were permissible for private cars as well.