BEIJING - Chinese people who live in government-sponsored housing in a prosperous southern province may be evicted if caught repeatedly spitting in public, according to a draft plan.

The plan, carried on the Guangzhou Land and House Management Bureau's website (www.laho.gov.cn), also includes littering, making too much noise and gambling among more than 20 other misdeeds that would lead to eviction, based on a point system.

Spitting once in the community carries a three point penalty, littering five, dropping things from upper stories seven and not paying the rent for three consecutive months carries the maximum of 20 points, the plan said.

People in such housing will be forced to move out if they rack up a total of 20 points.

Spitting in public is common in China, despite repeated government campaigns to wipe it out as a health menace.

The bureau's website said it had borrowed ideas from the advanced experience of Hong Kong on public housing management.

But the idea has upset China's increasingly vocal online community.

Some web users have criticized the plan as discrimination against the poor, saying Hong Kong was a much fairer and more modern city than Guangzhou, where people could not be expected to live up to such high standards.

What if a rich person did all these things? one web user said on popular portal sina.com.cn..

Guangzhou is the capital of the country's export-oriented economic heartland province of Guangdong.

The bureau is now seeking public opinions on the draft.

(Reporting by Huang Yan and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Alex Richardson)

China