Necessary reduction

The Shanghai municipal government's decision to suspend the purchase of new cars for government use until January is a welcome sign of change. It shows that governments at local levels have started paying attention to the problems caused by too many government cars.

Shanghai's move, which came last week, follows actions by local governments in Beijing and elsewhere to reduce the total number of days for the use of government cars.

These moves have obviously been prompted by long-accumulated public complaints about the overuse of government cars. More such cars mean more air pollution, greater wastage of public resources and also corruption among government officials.