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Clara Li

WHILE MANY BELIEVE Chinese are reserved, shy and subtle in expressing their feelings, a recent experiment with personalised car licence plates shows another side of the national character.

SEX001, MAN001 and VIP001 are among the bold personal statements owners have chosen to put on their vehicles.

Earlier this month, people in Shenzhen, Beijing, Tianjin and Hangzhou were allowed to choose their car number plates.

They were able to take any six letter-number sequence that someone in the same city had not claimed and pay only the usual 100 yuan (HK$93) licence fee.

Their choices showed a high degree of individuality and self-confidence. Among them were IAM007, GOD001, WIN001, WIN100 and PAT555 - short for 'pay attention to me'.

Of the 4,002 plates issued in the first 10 days in Beijing, 430 ended with 001.

A Shenzhen woman became the proud owner of CHN001 - China number one. The number was not issued in the other three cities.

Some plates also carried names of official businesses or agencies, such as CIA and FBI, and even offensive words such as TMD001 - the acronym of China's national curse.

For many years, car licence plates had been given, rather than chosen. Often the 'lucky' numbers went to those with connections or in power.

Numbers most sought-after include eight and six, which symbolise prosperity and fortune. Of the more than 4,000 car plates that were grabbed in Beijing, 352 ended with 168, meaning 'I am going to get rich'.

But the new-found freedom of expression was short-lived. Last Thursday, just 10 days after it was introduced, the vehicle management department of the Public Security Bureau of the cities suspended the practice, citing technical problems.

Controversial words on the plates may have led to the cancellation, based on official media reports and public speculation. But plates already issued remain valid.

Some reports indicated that choices such as BMW001 and TCL001 could cause concern about infringements of trademarks and intellectual property rights.

The experiment was meant to continue until the end of the year, when other mainland cities were to follow suit. The new system is said to be able to expand the licence plate capacity by 10 times.

For cities such as Beijing and Chengdu that have run out of licence numbers, the new system is more a necessity than a luxury.

Allowing more freedom to choose personal licence plates is also considered to be in line with international standards and can help curb corruption. Plates with lucky numbers such as eight and six have become hot property among those with power.

Shenzhen University economic researcher Zhang Quan believes Beijing's intention was to stimulate demand for licence plates, thus supporting the domestic car industry.

China has about five years before the industry is entirely opened to foreign players, and in that time needs to give the industry a push.

China imported 51,890 cars in the first half of the year, an increase of 33.6 per cent over last year, according to statistics.

As this year is the first since China joined the World Trade Organisation, the real impact of imported cars has not hit the industry, analysts say.

Inventory has piled up in duty-free warehouses and has reached an unprecedented level, according to Jia Xinguang, senior researcher of China Automobile Industry Development Research Institute. There are about 30,000 cars in China's duty-free zones and 6,000 to 7,000 waiting in Hong Kong. New orders keep coming in.

Mr Jia said imported cars accounted for only 5 per cent of market share but that could change quickly as the number hitting the market was expected to triple to 370,000 next year.

Last week, the China Automobile Anti-dumping Association issued a warning report for the first half of the year, which shows the percentage of the industry adversely affected by foreign imports ranges from 33.9 to 43.9 per cent. The figure is likely to rise as cars in duty-free zones clear customs and the quota of imports rises 15 per cent next year.

Beijing hopes that the new licence plate system will stimulate car ownership.

'In the past, the motive of the old system was to restrict and prohibit. But now the main purpose is to encourage and promote,' Mr Jia said. 'The government wants those families who can afford [cars] to buy cars as soon as possible.'

According to the State Planning Committee, China made 1.78 million cars from January to last month, an increase of 32.08 per cent. It sold 1.8 million cars, 31.23 per cent more than in the same period last year. But some question the effectiveness of the scheme, as few people will buy a car simply to obtain a personalised number plate.



Plate of freedom found too saucy for mainland consumption