Central government lays down the law over illegally built mountainside villas in Shaanxi(2)

In 2003, the city government still attracted investment for cultural and tourism projects at the foot of the mountain, despite the multiple regulations that had been released, said Zhang.

"After the money came in, merchants managed to turn land for tourism projects into real-estate developments, because real estate is more profitable than tourism projects, and this is how tourist attractions became villas," Zhang recalled.

"In 2008, the city government decided to keep more than 20 villa projects and added another 20 or 30 projects to the list, making 55 villa projects legal. These were deemed illegal and ordered demolished this year," Zhang added.

Li Zuojun, deputy director of the resources and environment policy institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, told the Global Times that the extensive villa construction causes severe damage to the ecology of the Qinling Mountain area.

"Human activities after the completion of the villas causes pollution and damage to the environment, and impacts biodiversity in the area," Li said. "Wild animals' authentic living habitat and migration routes are changed by human activities."

A reporter from the Global Times saw that the illegal villas that have been demolished have been covered by green grass, and a compound has been reconstructed into a natural park which will be open to public by the end of the year.

"Although returning the land to nature can stop pollution and damage to the environment, it takes a very long time for the environment to recover from the construction," said Li.

Among these illegal villas, the biggest and most notorious one is a super-large villa in Caijiapo village of Huyi district under the possession of Chen Lu.

According to Xinhua, in August of 2005, Chen Lu and Zhi Liang signed a land lease contract with the village to rent 10,000 square meters for 70 years in the name of landscaping construction, and started illegal building at the end of the year.

In August 2008, the villa took shape. It occupied 9,280 square meters, with a 517-square meter concrete building, two fish ponds, a doghouse and three other buildings, a local TV station reported.

Details about Chen remain unknown, Chen's father was a senior official of the Shaanxi provincial government.

In July, the central government sent a special rectification team headed by Xu Lingyi, the deputy head of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission.

Xu asserted that the illegal construction of these villas at the north side of the Qinling Mountain is a political issue, local media reported.

On November 1, Qian Yin'an, a senior official in Shaanxi Province, was investigated for suspected serious violations of Party disciplinary rules and laws, according to the top anti-graft agency.

On November 5, Shangguan Jiqing resigned from the post of Xi'an mayor.

Wei Minzhou, the former municipal Party secretary of Xi'an and former senior legislator from Shaanxi Province, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for taking bribes of 100 million yuan. One of the bribes reportedly was a villa in the Qinling Mountain.

"The sacking of these senior local officials is closely related with the illegal construction in Qinling Mountain," Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity-Building at Peking University, told the Global Times.

"Some of the officials are blamed for failing to implement the central government's orders, while some officials participated in the illegal business themselves," added Zhuang.

"Self-inspect comprehensively and self-examine thoroughly," Hu Heping, chief of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, said in a report meeting on the special rectification of the illegal villas at the north piedmont of the Qinling Mountain on November 15.

Before the local government's declaration, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, briefed on the handling of the illegal villas, blamed the local Party committees for a severe violation of political discipline.

Focus on environment

Zhuang believes the solution the central government has offered to rectify the illegal construction in Qinling demonstrates that the country is attaching an unprecedented importance to environmental protection.

"With the principle that 'lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,' China has attached more significance to environmental protection amid high-speed economic development. Meanwhile, China is also focusing on fighting against corruption in environmental issues."

"The central government's resolute investigation and punishment is an example for anti-corruption work in other places to follow," said Zhuang.

According to Zhuang, the reason behind China's hard-core environment issues is the corruption in many local governments. "The reason why China's environmental problems recur and are hard to rectify is the collusion between local officials and unscrupulous businessmen."

"Clean politics is helpful to a clean environment," said Zhuang.

Chen's super-large villa was demolished on September 29, and the land was planted with grass on October 15, thepaper.cn reported in October.