No favoritism in car plate lottery scheme: official

An official from Beijing traffic bureau said Thursday they will not investigate claims that the same person has won the car plate lottery eight times in seven months.

This comes amid repeated criticism of residents' lack of success in the capital's monthly car plate lottery.

Disgruntled would-be drivers have taken to microblogs, alleging that a lottery winner named Liu Xuemei has won in consecutive months out of privilege or connections, despite the identity numbers being different.

Jack Li, a Beijing resident who works in communication, was disappointed after he failed to win for the 14th straight time.

He said that while the names may belong to different people, the mistrust he has in the system leaves him unable to tell if this is merely a duplication of names or an advantage reserved for the privileged.

"The rich people I know all have license plates. It's very hard to tell whether they were lucky to get them through fair competition in the lottery," said Jack Li.

Despite the speculation, an official surnamed Zhang from Beijing Traffic Management Bureau said there is nothing suspicious going on.

"Our car plate lottery is fair to everybody. It's controlled by computer, not human beings," said Zhang.

Each applicant's ID card corresponds to a unique 13 digit code, and after a successful application, the number cannot be reused.

"If people quit their application and resume later, they will still have the same code," said Zhang.

Li Yang, a college teacher who has applied for a year, said he believes too many people apply, even though they do not want a car.

"People who apply should pay a fee, which will sort out those who really don't want to buy a car," he said.

The chance of successfully winning a license plate has dipped to only 0.015 percent this month, the lowest odds since the scheme started in January 2011, because more residents apply, but the final license quota is fixed.

Over 1.265 million people entered the lottery in November, but only 18,832 were granted a license plate.