China banned the military to travel in luxury, "Mercedes" and "Bentley"

Chinese military may not be used as an official foreign cars premium. This decision was made by the Central Military Commission, headed by the President of China Xi Jinping.

In the black list of cars were cars costing more than 450000 yuan (U.S. $ 73 thousand), and 3 liters engine capacity and above. This immediately left below many models Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lincoln, Cadillac, Bentley, Jaguar, Porsche, Land Rover, Audi and even Volkswagen (Phaeton).

The new rules came into effect on 1 May - from that day in the car park of the People's Liberation Army of China started replacing old-style number plates with new ones, according to RBC daily. In June, the authorities will also begin a campaign against fake military license plate characters used by many savvy drivers.

Machines with military numbers in China have different unspoken privileges, for example, can drive through a red light and on dedicated lanes, without fear of the police. In general, the prestige they are second only to cars with diplomatic plates. Used as control car very often for personal purposes, and their drivers behave very aggressively.

The Chinese Internet there are more videos and photos of cars with military plates, with special attention is drawn to luxury foreign cars. A wave of indignation in the community increases, which could not take into account the new Chinese leader Xi Jinping when he gave start a large-scale anti-corruption campaign.

Decrease in purchases made by the Chinese army could be a serious blow to sales of foreign carmakers in the premium segment. In the first quarter sales of luxury cars in China rose by only 4% compared with the same period in 2012 while overall sales in the auto market increased by 17%. Experts attribute this in part to the anti-corruption campaign in the country and gain control of the government for the cost of officials.