PLA Daily warns top brass about abusing housing privileges
Senior officers with several homes should return to their official residence, Daily says
The official PLA Daily ran a front-page article on Wednesday urging military officials to vacate properties they were no longer entitled to.
The article came after President Xi Jinping issued a directive in late July tightening up property supervision within the PLA. Commentators said the article suggested Xi's campaign had run into resistance.
Regulations require that an official residence revert back to department control if the officer is reposted or dies. But in many cases, the children or relatives of the officer stay on. In cases involving powerful military families, getting the flats back can prove difficult.
The army recently issued a briefing on the campaign, saying it was gathering pace but had so far failed to meet public expectations, the Daily reported.
One new idea is to hold the party chief of military departments accountable if residences aren't given back. If the officer holds a higher rank than the discipline inspector in charge of a case, the party chief should be alerted and help persuade the officer to hand over the flat.
Ni Lexiong , a Shanghai-based military commentator, said it was an open secret children would "inherit" official residences assigned to a parent.