Corrupt houses

The exposure of apartment buildings with serious quality problems one after another points to the prevalent corruption in the construction industry. The document released by the State Council last week to launch a two-year crackdown on serious malpractices in the real estate sector further underscores how serious the problem is.

A new apartment building collapsed in Shanghai in June. Two residential buildings became seriously tilted after heavy rains in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province; a two storeyed-building collapsed in the rainstorm in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province; walls of several residential building developed cracks in Nanjing in Jiangsu province; and, a bridge under construction collapsed in Shaanxi province. All these occurred in less than two months.

Undoubtedly, it is not lack of technology that has caused these quality problems. With the technology to build such structures as the Bird's Nest or 100-storeyed skyscrapers, it should be a piece of cake for Chinese construction companies to build multi-storeyed residential buildings of sound quality.