China drivers vent road rage   (Reuters)  Updated: 2006-08-04 12:33  Beijing is plagued with 
drivers flaunting military and state security license plates, real and bogus, to 
enjoy immunity from traffic rules -- a privilege reserved for China's political 
elite, official media reported. 
Cars bearing the red-lettered plates of the People's Liberation Army and 
armed police, and ones indicating "state security" clearance, are increasingly 
familiar on the national capital's crowded roads, a Beijing newspaper reported 
on Friday. 
 They regularly flout traffic lights, no-turn signs and other road rules, and 
traffic police rarely risk pulling over drivers who effectively outrank them. 
 But in a rare public venting of one of ordinary Beijing residents' biggest 
gripes, the Market News lashed out at "privileged cars" and said many of the 
official plates were fake or illegally obtained. 
 "The masses of special privilege cars barging around and driving as they 
please has long been a chronic ailment in urban traffic," the paper said in an 
editorial comment. 
 The paper -- which is run by the People's Daily, -- suggested that allowing 
privileged drivers to use bus-only lanes and defy traffic lights with impunity 
violated the rule of law. 
 "The key problem here is there is no exercise of equality before the law," 
the paper said. "Traffic police all know that punishing a privileged car gets a 
warning, and letting them go makes you a model." 
 In the United States, the paper noted, government cars display signs "not as 
a symbol of special status, but on the contrary so the public can exercise 
oversight," the paper said. 
 The paper printed what it said was a widely-circulated Internet complaint 
from a driver fed up with military and state security-approved cars scoffing at 
road rules. 
 The immunity given to China's state elite was encouraging other drivers to 
buy fake plates for as little as 300 yuan (about $40), it said, describing a 
spot near the rising 2008 Olympic Games stadiums that specialises in selling 
them. 
 "It's because the genuine privileged cars are so piggish that these bogus 
plates dare to suggest they have powerful connections," the report quoted one 
driver as saying.  
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