BEIJING (Reuters) - China will phase out the use of official vehicles for uses other than for emergencies or law enforcement by the end of next year, state media said on Wednesday, as Beijing presses on with a high-profile campaign against graft.
China's leadership under President Xi Jinping has been leading a widespread crack down on wasteful government spending and corruption to shore up its mandate to rule, which has been shaken by suspicion that officials waste taxpayers' money or use their positions for personal advantage.
The government has targeted official corruption and extravagance since Xi's appointment last year. Xi has said graft threatens the party's survival.
Last year, the military began replacing licence plates on its cars and trucks to crack down on legions of vehicles, many of them plush luxury brands, which routinely break traffic laws and fill up with free petrol.
Now the ruling Communist Party is going after the fleets of vehicles which ferry officials around, apart from for emergencies and law enforcement, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.
"In China, officials above a certain level have usually been provided a driver and car for their work, but many have used the vehicles for private purposes, causing massive waste of public funds and widespread complaints," the news agency said in a report.
The government would instead provide appropriate subsidies for civil servants to let them choose their own transport, it added.
But this is unlikely to affect the sleek cars which carry Xi and his cabinet members about Beijing, as the rules make provision for "special services", likely to apply to the most senior officials.
Drivers and other staff who may be affected by this change will have to be "properly relocated", spare vehicles will be publicly sold off "to avoid losses of state-owned assets", Xinhua said.
Xi, who has vowed to go after powerful "tigers" as well as lowly "flies", has netted several senior figures in his corruption sweep, including Xu Caihou, former vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission.
In the latest move, the party said on Wednesday it had expelled two more former senior officials for corruption, laying the way for their prosecution.
The party's anti-corruption watchdog said in brief statements that Mao Xiaobing, former party boss of the western city of Xining, and Zhang Tianxin, former party chief of the southwestern city of Kunming, had "serious discipline problems".
"The investigation found that Mao Xiaobing took advantage of his post to seek profits for others, demanded and took a huge amount of bribes and committed adultery," the watchdog said in a statement.
Party members, especially senior officials, are supposed to be morally upstanding and adultery is considered a serious breach of party discipline.
Mao, whose investigation was announced in April, will be handed over to judicial authorities for prosecution, the watchdog said. He has also formally been sacked.
The former Kunming official, Zhang, also abused his official position, with his dereliction of duty causing "a loss of state assets", the party said.
It did not say if he had been handed over to the prosecutors, but that is the most likely next step.
It was not possible to reach either of them for comment.
While both Xining and Kunming are third-tier Chinese cities, they are also relatively important places.
Xining is capital of Qinghai province, home to a large and restless population of Tibetans. Qinghai is also the birthplace of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Kunming is capital of Yunnan province, which sits strategically on the borders of Southeast Asia, including Myanmar and Vietnam.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait and Robert Birsel)
