Unaffordable welfare abuse

IT HAS BEEN REPORTED THAT IN CENTRAL CHINA'S Hunan province, low-rent housing, a welfare that the government provides for low-income families, has become a means some people use to make money. It is a matter of social justice and fairness and it should never be ignored or handled with kid gloves.

A two-room apartment for which the tenant pays the government just 40 yuan ($6.5) a month can be rented out for 2,000 yuan a month, according to the report. Reporters found that such illegal practice is common in the provincial capital Changsha. And the phenomenon also exists in other cities.

For those who enjoy such low-rent houses, the abuse of this welfare by renting out their government-leased, low-rent houses constitutes a serious infringement on the interests of the State. For those who get such houses by providing false information and then rent out the houses for profit, what they do can be considered fraud.