PLA to curb car plate misuse

BEIJING - The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and armed police forces will introduce new license plates for their vehicles to curb the misuse of military vehicles and plates, a senior officer said Friday.

Unless registered as military equipment, some vehicles, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lincoln, Cadillac, Volkswagen Phaeton, Bentley, Jaguar, Porsche, Land Rover and Audi Q7, will not receive the new license plates, according to Zhao Keshi, head of the PLA's General Logistics Department.

A new batch of military vehicle plates will be put into use starting from May 1, and those currently in use, which were introduced in 2004, will be annulled by April 30, Zhao said at a televised conference.

Greater efforts will be made to crack down on the creation, sale and use of counterfeit military vehicle plates and root out loopholes in the management of military vehicles, said Zhao, also a member of the country's Central Military Commission (CMC).

Zhao listed several types of vehicles that will not be eligible for the new plates, including private vehicles, local government vehicles, vehicles for local officials who hold concurrent positions in the PLA and armed police forces, as well as vehicles that fail to conform to the CMC's requirements and those for which purchasing formalities have not been completed.

Any unit and individual that privately leases, lends or embezzles military vehicle plates, or those using military vehicles for private purposes, will face severe punishment, Zhao said.