Environment remains vulnerable to corruption

Editor's note: Last month, online reports showed a villa has been constructed on Qinling Mountain, Shaanxi province, where such construction is prohibited, with the owner being the son of a local official. The General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee recently issued a document about the incident, saying the local Communist Party of China committees had violated Party discipline. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

According to the document, the Party committees of Shaanxi province and Xi'an city have seriously violated Party discipline. The case is publicized as a typical example of local officials committing wrongs on the issue of environmental protection.

As early as 2003, the Shaanxi provincial government issued a notice prohibiting any company or individual from building on the north side of Qinling mountain range, and regulations were introduced banning any construction projects.

However, the problem only got more serious and the number of villas kept growing. Finally, last month, the report about the luxurious villa went viral online.

The Qinling case highlights the importance of fighting corruption to the end. It has long been reported that the villa belongs to the son of a local official, and the local authorities vowed to investigate the matter, yet they did not match their words with deeds. If there is corruption behind this, it is necessary to root out that corruption first so as to clear the forces curbing environmental protection.

Worse, if the illegal villa can survive demolition because it belongs to the son of an official, the other illegal villa owners will oppose the process, which in turn would curb the efforts of recovering the ecology in Qinling.

The case is also of exemplary meaning to the whole nation because it shows the central leadership's firm determination to strengthen environmental protection. At last, it is the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the working group on environmental protection sent by the central leadership that addressed the problem of the Qinling villa.

Now the ecological environment in Qinling has already started recovering. We hope the local officials will learn from their wrongs and any possible corruption will be punished.