Facts about China's growing vehicle population
Over the last 30 years, rapid urbanization and motorization in China has seen the “bicycle kingdom” being transformed into the world’s largest automobile market, accounting for a quarter of global cars sales. [1] In 2015, China’s vehicle population reached 172 million. [2] However, the Chinese market has not been saturated yet. Just as China’s rapid economic growth has benefited some but not all of its residents, not every Chinese person’s dream of owning a car have been achieved. By comparison, China’s average households’ car ownership rate is still low, just a quarter of America’s. [3] While Beijing has the country’s highest private car penetration (63 private cars for every 100 households), the national average is only 25 private cars per 100 households. [4] For most Chinese people these days, owning a car is considered a symbol of an independent lifestyle and prestige, representing freedom of mobility and upward social status. Cycling, in contrast, is often associated with the poor. "In China, it's more about social status: look at me, look at my new car. It's much more about the thrill you get from pulling up in front of your hotel or golf club or workplace and being seen and recognized," said Michael Dunne, President of an investment advisory firm specializing in the Asian automobile industry. [5]
The car ownership restriction policy
But the rapid growth of car ownership has brought with it both air pollution and traffic congestion problems to Chinese cities. Already a third of the world's most congested cities are located in China. [6] According to a World Bank report from 2012, vehicular emissions have been one of the main sources of air pollution in China’s urban areas. [7] Attempting to address congestion and air quality problems in urban areas fast and effectively, while still allowing Chinese people’s car aspirations to be satisfied, some Chinese local governments have been imposing restriction policies on individual's car purchase rights. This is intended to slow down the growth of private cars by setting limitations on license plates registrations for newly purchased cars. Shanghai pioneered the car ownership restriction policy through running a public car license plates auction in 1994. [8] The automobile industry and private car purchases were strongly encouraged by China’s national government as a means to stimulate domestic economic growth in the 1990s. Shanghai, as one of the major automobile manufacturing centres of China, ostensibly imposed car ownership restriction policies. Actually, these policies were intended as an incentive to promote locally made cars through an auction process that had lower bidding prices for Shanghai-made Volkswagen Santana cars than other cars. [9] It was not until January 19, 2000, that Shanghai’s private car license plates auction policies had been launched in full force. [10] The car plates auctions have helped the Shanghai municipal government to earn money that has subsequently been channeled into Shanghai’s public transport system during the past years. [11]
To get one’s car registered in Shanghai is very hard. “A license plate for a private car in Shanghai costs 100 times as much as one in Beijing, judging by a November 2010 auction in which 13,429 bidders competed for 8,500 license plates,” China Daily reported. [12] Such a high competitiveness contributed to the soaring of bidding prices. Awkwardly, many entry-level cars are even cheaper than the average price for getting a car plate in Shanghai. [13] As Shanghai’s car plates have become so difficult and expensive to obtain, many people have their cars registered in neighboring cities. Since cars with non-Shanghai plates can drive on Shanghai’s roads anyway, why one should use the complicated auction process? [14]
Shanghai’s car ownership restriction mechanisms, however, have made some positive effects on the environment. According to an environmental assessment released by United Nations Environment Programme in 2009, because of Shanghai’s traffic restriction measures, NO2 and CO emissions have been stabilized, and the annual daily concentration of SO2 has seen a continuous decrease. [15] Drawing on lessons from Shanghai, Beijing’s car ownership restriction policy regulates the distribution of license plates through a lottery mechanism rather than an auction process, because Shanghai's bidding measures are considered unfair to low-income people. [16] In addition, Beijing restricted the driving of cars with non-Beijing license plates inside the city during rush hours, so as to prevent people from having their car plates registered in other cities.
Unexpectedly, Guiyang, the capital of one of China’s poorest provinces located in southwestern China, became the first prefectural-level city to impose controls on car ownership. Guiyang adopted Beijing’s lottery mechanisms. But Guiyang made a distinction between two types of car license plates: normal and special. Only the special type is subjected to a lottery process, coming with the right to drive in the city center. [17] There are also some cities --- Guangzhou, Tianjin, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen --- that have combined Beijing’s lottery mechanism and Shanghai’s auction mechanism. Like one Chinese sayings goes, “Take the essence, discard the dregs.”
The controversies
How does the Chinese public see these car ownership restriction policies? Public opinion surveys on the policy’s effectiveness in improving roads and air conditions show that while 52.7% of respondents considered the policy to be ineffective in Beijing, 62% supported the policy in Guangzhou. [18] Besides, local governments have been criticized as acting unlawful and in an untrustworthy manner during the process of policy implementation. Some scholars questioned the legality of car ownership restriction policies, because the policy process did not include a public opinion hearing process. [19] The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers even openly criticized these local policy restrictions on car purchases, pointing out that they are in conflict with China’s national government's many policies that actually promote the automobile industry. [20]
As many corruption cases and cheating scandals have been exposed by the Chinese media, the equity of these policies has also been challenged. In Shanghai, two civil servants have been prosecuted on charges of accepting bribes (amounting to approximately 220 million yuan) and illegally auctioning license plates over the past ten years. [21] In Beijing, Song Jianguo, previously the head of Beijing’s Traffic Management bureau, was caught taking bribes and cheating in the lottery process. [22]
Running with risks
Given that the tides of the motorization process in China will not fade in the years to come, whether a nationwide application of car ownership restriction policies will become a reality remains to be seen. Basically, the central government has advocated local governments to curb emissions from transportation sectors, and many other Chinese cities (for instance, Chengdu and Xi’an) say that they will consider adopting controls on car purchases if they see a necessity. [23] But implementing car ownership restriction policies can be very complicated and risky, because they are controversial and intertwined with almost all aspects of Chinese residents’ lifestyles, well-being and aspirations. How will local authorities sustain such controversial measures while accommodating urban residents’ pent-up car purchase? As China’s war on smog proceeds, this puzzle will have bearings on the legitimacy of the party state.
Endnotes
[1] “China ends 'bicycle kingdom' as embracing cars,” China Daily, November 11, 2004, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/11/content_390685.htm; “China: world’s biggest auto producer, consumer,” China Daily, January 12, 2010, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2010-01/12/content_9309129.htm. [2] “China’s car ownership reaches 172 million,” Xinhua, January 25, 2016, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-01/25/c_135043964.htm. [3] “Car ownership reaches record high in China - in 50 seconds,” BBC, January 30, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31065433. [4] “Counting cars: rising private automobile ownership in Chinese cities paves road for gasoline demand,” China Signpost, June 23, 2013, http://www.chinasignpost.com/2013/06/23/counting-cars-rising-private-automobile-ownership-in-chinese-cities-paves-road-for-gasoline-demand/. [5] Tania Branigan, “China and cars: a love story,” The Guardian, December 24, 2012, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/14/china-worlds-biggest-new-car-market. [6] “China has world's most congested cities,” China Daily, April 7, 2015, http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/us/2015-04/07/content_20020091.htm. [7] “Urban transport and climate change,” World Bank, August 14, 2012, http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2012/08/14/urban-transport-and-climate-change. [8] “Huigu gedi xianpailing: Beijing yaohao Shanghai paimai” [Reviewing various car ownership restriction policies at the local level: Beijing uses lottery while Shanghai runs auction], Zhongguo keji wang, March 26, 2014, http://www.stdaily.com/qc/tpxw/201403/t20140326_675441.shtml. [9] “Zhongguo ‘zuigui tiepi’: Shanghai chepai de 15 nian beixiju” [China’s “most expensive piece of iron”: 15-year tragicomedy of Shanghai’s car license plate], Shanghai rexian, January 15, 2015, http://hi.online.sh.cn/content/2015-01/15/content_7257770_3.htm. [10] Suwei Feng and Qiang Li, "Car ownership control in Chinese mega cities: Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou," Journeys, September, 2011: 40-49. [11] John Gong, “Auctioning license plates far better than dodgy lottery,” Shanghai Daily, May 4, 2011, http://www.shanghaidaily.com/Opinion/chinese-perspectives/Auctioning-license-plates-far-better-than-dodgy-lottery/shdaily.shtml. [12] Yiyao Wu, “Shanghai number plates worth more than a car,” China Daily, January 7, 2011, http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-01/07/content_11810034.htm. [13] “In China, the license plates can cost more than the car,” Bloomberg, April 25, 2013, http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-04-25/in-china-the-license-plates-can-cost-more-than-the-car. [14] “Zhongguo ‘zuigui tiepi’” [China’s “most expensive piece of iron”], Shanghai rexian, 2015. [15] “UNEP environmental assessment Expo 2010 Shanghai, China,” United Nations Environment Programme, August 18, 2009, http://www.unep.org/pdf/PressReleases/SHANGHAI_REPORT_FullReport.pdf. [16] “Huigu gedi xianpailing” [Reviewing various car ownership restriction policies at the local level], Zhongguo keji wang, 2014. [17] Ibid. [18] “Beijing guoban toupiaozhe renwei bannian zhidu wuxiao” [More than half of the voters see half-year-old traffic congestion measures ineffective in Beijing], Fenghuang wang, July, 10, 2011, http://auto.ifeng.com/news/special/yaohaoxiangjie/20110710/640669.shtml; “‘Xianpai’ 3 nian bu ‘xianwai’ jiefang tucao shangpai gui daolu du” [“Car ownership restriction policy” has been introduced for three years without “restricting non-local” cars, the public complains that car plates registration is expensive and the roads are jammed], Guangzhou ribao, June 29, 2015, http://news.dayoo.com/guangzhou/201506/29/139995_42147759.htm. [19] “Guangdongsheng fazhiban: qidong dui Shenzhen ‘xianpailing’ hefaxing shencha” [Guangdong provincial legislative affairs office: Start to check the legality of Shenzhen’s car ownership restriction policy], People’s Daily Online, January 24, 2015, http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2015/0124/c1001-26442097.html. [20] “Zhongqixie fandui Guangzhou qiche xiangou cheng qi dingfeng zuo’an” [The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers against Guangzhou’s car purchase restrictions saying that Guangzhou’s approach disobeyed the main trend], Xinhua, July 12, 2012, http://news.xinhuanet.com/yuqing/2012-07/12/c_123404729.htm. [21] “Shanghai ‘neigui chepai’, tiaozhan paimai chepai gongpingxing” [Shanghai’s ‘car license plates auction being spied on’, the equity of the auction has been challenged], Beijing News, June 11, 2015, http://epaper.bjnews.com.cn/html/2015-06/11/content_581659.htm?div=-1. [22] “Beijing jiaoguanju yuanjuzhang Song Jianguo beicha huo she yaohao wubi” [Song Jianguo, previous head of the Beijing traffic management bureau, was investigated and might have been cheating in the lottery process], Sina, May 25, 2014, http://auto.sina.com.cn/news/2014-05-28/08341297367.shtml. [23] “Xiayige shishi qiche xiangou de chengshi shi shui?” [Which city will be the next one restricting car purchases?], Auto-China 360, January 4, 2015, http://www.autochina360.com/news/zhengcebiaozhun/568208.html.
Xi Yang writes her Master thesis and works as research assistant in connection with the “Airborne: Pollution, Climate Change, and Visions of Sustainability in China” research project at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo. She also holds an MA degree from the Centre for China studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.