An executive meeting of the provincial government of Jiangsu has called for enhancing the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee in response to a document released by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on the construction of villas in Qinling Mountain in Shaanxi province, which has seriously violated Party discipline.The meeting was presided over by Wu Zhenglong, governor of Jiangsu.
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.
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.
The Qinling Mountains, an important east-west mountain range in southern Shaanxi, supports a large variety of plants and wildlife. However, since 1997 many unapproved villas have been built on its northern side, occupying farms and forests and creating pollution.
To protect the environment, the province issued a notice in early 2003 prohibiting any construction in the Qinling Natural Reserve with regulations 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.