Hunan, the central province where nearly 2,000
officials and celebrities were exposed this month for breaking
family planning laws, is planning to impose harsher fines on
wealthy couples that have unauthorized children.
The standing committee of Hunan provincial people's congress has
been discussing a draft amendment to local family planning
regulations that would impose a standard fine equal to two to six
times an offender's income for the previous year.
The amendment is to take effect on the date it is approved by
the provincial people's congress.
"The current penalties are too low for well-off people, and we
are raising them to ensure social justice," an official with the
Hunan family planning commission said.
According to the draft amendment, offenders will be fined three
to five times their annual incomes - on top of the standard fine -
for each child after the first unauthorized birth. People who have
illegitimate children will face an additional fine of six to eight
times their income in the previous year.
The official declined to discuss details about how the fines
will be enforced.
The current regulations in Hunan impose a fine equal to double
an offender's income during the previous year, and triple for every
child after the first unauthorized birth.
Some 1,968 officials in Hunan were found breaching the nation's
family planning law between 2000 and 2005, according to the
provincial family planning commission.
Also exposed by the commission were 21 national and local
lawmakers, 24 political advisors, 112 entrepreneurs and six
intellectuals.
A national lawmaker identified by his surname, Li, was keeping
four mistresses, with whom he had had four children.
Provincial Governor Zhou Qiang in April ordered local
authorities to "expose the celebrities and high-income people who
violate the family planning policy and have more than one
child".
Such measures have also been adopted in east China's Zhejiang Province and in central China's Henan Province, the nation's most populous
region. Officials belonging to the Communist Party of China will be
barred from promotion if they have more children than the law
allows.
The family planning policy was enacted in the late 1970s to
ensure one child for each family and encourage late marriages and
childbearing. The policy was eventually upgraded to the Population
and Family Planning Law, which took effect in September 2002.
A survey conducted by the national family planning commission
showed that most celebrities and rich people have two children,
with 10 percent of them having three.
In Hunan, officials estimate 30 million births have been
prevented because of the policy. As the administrator of the
province which is the seventh most populous province in China, the
Hunan provincial government has vowed to keep its population within
70.1 million by 2010.
(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2007)