Song's main "customer friends" were businesspeople and artists. They longed for the "power number plates" to impress upon their business partners and rivals that they had powerful friends who could get them "rare resources". This is a more worrisome phenomenon than Song's corruption, because it shows how obsessed China's elite are with power.

True, the authorities have launched a series of reforms and campaigns to put "power in a cage", so to speak, but many people still think pandering to officials who exercise power will save them from the long hand of the law. This makes it all the more important for the authorities to intensify the fight against power abuse and promote the rule of law.

In the crackdown on corruption, the authorities have dismissed more than 100 minister-level officials. But it is the actions of corrupt officials at Song's or lower level that harm social fairness the most. The amount of money they embezzle or get as bribes may be smaller than that accumulated by senior corrupt officials, but their negative impact is more palpable and felt by the grassroots people for a longer time.

Vehicle administration departments in many cities treat the compulsory annual car test, especially tail-gas detection, as a cash cow. It is said that an old vehicle billowing black smoke from the exhaust pipe can pass the check, introduced to curb air pollution, if its owner pays several hundred yuan.

Song continued his corrupt activities for a decade until one corruption case involving his subordinates in the vehicle administration department exposed him.

Song's case ought to make the authorities realize that people should have access to more legal channels to take to court officials whose malpractices directly affect their everyday life. And the use of law, instead of higher authority, to fight power abuse and corruption can make people believe that all alphabets and numerals carry the same weight when it comes to license plates.

The author is a writer with China Daily.

liyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/30/2015 page5)