Land violations

The Ministry of Supervision and its land and resources counterpart are right when they require local leaders to learn the lessons from past mistakes and do a better job after they meted out administrative disciplinary penalties on 73 local government leaders for violations of land use policies or rules in 2009.

But, of the 73 prefecture level mayors or county magistrates, only one was demoted. The others received a warning or demerit. Even more worrying, several of them have reportedly been promoted to a higher-level position.

Such punishments obviously fall short of the public's expectations and are unlikely to have much effect as a deterrent.