China shuts every sixth golf course in crackdown

In a crackdown on golf courses, China had shut a sixth of the country's golf courses since 2011, its top economic planner said. The sport is controversial for its links with wealthy elites.

China's ruling Communist Party had an ambivalent relationship with golf, even as local authorities profited from land sales for golf courses, which were  seen as venues for shady dealmaking between elites and politicians.

A nationwide freeze on new golf courses was clamped by authorities in 2004, but it was largely ignored.

Following the launch of a fresh crackdown in 2011, 111 of China's 683 golf courses nationwide were ordered shut, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement posted on its website yesterday.

Also operators had voluntarily closed 11 golf courses, the NDRC said.

Action was taken against courses for illegally using arable land or nature reserves, extracting groundwater in prohibited areas, and other violations.

An additional 18 courses were ordered by the NDRC to return illegally occupied land, and  47 others were ordered to stop further construction.

All of China's provincial-level regions except Tibet had golf course, according to the NDRC.

In 2015, the country's 88 million members of the Communist party members were banned from joining golf clubs in a corruption crackdown that also targeted banquets and lavish gift-giving.

According to Han Liebao, an expert with Beijing Forestry University, stricter anti-corruption rules, which listed playing golf as a violation, helped rein in  the demand for golf in the past few years, putting business pressure on golf course operators.

The NDRC said the government would continue to ban new construction and illegal expansion of golf courses in the future.