The State Council yesterday vowed to remove a lingering embarrassment to the central government's authority - the increasing number of luxury golf courses in a country that does not have enough drinking water for its people.
A 'serious effort' was ordered at a State Council executive meeting, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, to take over and redirect the use of unapproved golf courses. Penalties were expected to be meted out to violators of a seven-year ban on building new golf courses.
Unauthorised building of courses was first banned in 2004, and has been repeatedly banned since, almost 10 times, according to China News Service.
But of the nearly 600 existing golf courses on the mainland, as many as 400 were built after 2004, the Shanghai-based Xinmin Evening News reported. In a commentary piece, it called them an embarrassment to the government.
Some local officials have already been disciplined, according to Li Jianqin, an official from the Ministry of Land and Resources who is on the central government's rules-enforcement team concerning the control of golf courses nationwide.
Unapproved golf courses have also strained the government's relations with the increasingly articulate environmental movements, which have been critical of the golf course craze. Ma Jun, a leading environmentalist, said their existence is at odds with the need to save water in drought-prone northern China.