In an effort to save money and cut down on waste, all vehicles purchased by the the People's Liberation Army (PLA) from now on must be from a domestic brand.
The PLA's General Staff Headquarters, General Political Department, General Logistics Department and the General Armament Department said in a joint statement that the goal of the new order is to improve the army's budgetary process and "strictly regulate" how it uses money. The circular implements a policy initiative approved earlier by the Central Military Commission (CMC).
The new order also aims to bring PLA spending in line with the government's Nov. 25 regulation to streamline the management of government funds, and to ban party and government officials from participating in overly extravagant activities.
The order requires the PLA to use a centralized system for purchasing vehicles and that the vehicles purchased are from domestically produced Chinese brands.
In addition to increasing transparency, purchasing efficiency and saving costs, some commentators suggest that the move will also help promote the sales of domestic vehicle brands as more and more government departments and ordinary civilians are expected to follow the PLA's lead to "buy Chinese."
In addition to requiring the purchase of domestic brands for vehicles, the circular also ordered the PLA to upgrade its supervision over spending and administrative costs and to cut down on extravagance. Under the new guidelines, future PLA business trips should be limited to only those deemed absolutely necessary and the number of staff who travel, their itinerary, as well as the room, board and mode of transportation costs for those business trips should be limited to the least amount of funds possible.
Finally the order required the PLA to exercise frugality in its domestic ceremonies and official receptions and ban the use of all public funds in personal banquets or for the purchase of souvenirs.