The central government's special team for regulating the use of government vehicles held a working conference in Beijing last week, announcing that 199,600 government vehicles had been found to have been illegally used over the past year and 170 people had been punished.

The public has been demanding zero tolerance over corruption. And the government has publicly announced its commitment to cracking down on corrupt officials.

 But only 170 people were punished for the misuse of the 199,600 cars, which means one person per 1,000 cars. I think this is not punishment, but indulgence.

We don't know how the government cars were identified as illegally used. But if we look at the relevant rules and regulations, there are many government cars that exceed such standards.

The Yulin government in Shaanxi Province recently put 20 luxury government cars exceeding standards for auction. Three of them were given a starting price of over $78,000 and the auction for a car worth $150,000 failed to find a suitable buyer.

It seemed the auctions could be seen as a political achievement by the local government, but no one was punished. It is more disappointing that nobody paid for the public financial losses resulting from the auctions.

It would be harder to control misuse of government cars if the cost of breaking rules wasn't so cheap.

Zhujiang Evening News