A Chinese official reiterated the need of legal measures to stop
rich people from having too many kids, which helps to ensure
people's equality facing China's one-child policy.
"Every one should be equal in terms of the right of birth-
giving," said Pan Guiyu, vice minister of the State Commission for
Population and Family Planning, during an online interview with a
popular Chinese website.
Legal actions will be more effective than the current fining
methods in restraining the rich from having more offspring, said
Pan, also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC),
which is in a ten-day annual session in Beijing.
"Imposing fines makes little difference to the rich," said Pan,
noting that many business tycoons and show business celebrities are
finding a number of ways to have two or more kids, including hiding
in some remote rural areas, bribing birth-control officials and
even emigrating abroad for giving the birth.
Pan's remarks came three days after another CPPCC member urged
the adoption of tough measures in addition to monetary penalty on
the same issue, which is arousing great social concern.
Yang Kuifu, a CPPCC population expert, has called for the
government to give poor ranking to the rich who have breached the
family planning policy.
Civil servants or people with state-run institutions generally
abide by the one-child policy for fear of losing their jobs. But
little stopped private business people or celebrities from having
as many children as they wanted, Yang said.
The one-child family policy was enacted in the 1970's to curb a
huge population explosion. In 2002 the law was amended to allow
ethnic minorities to have more than one child and peasants to have
a second child if their first is a girl, while restricting urban
couples to only one child.
The fines can be as high as 150,000 yuan (about US$20,000) for
urban dwellers or as low as 7,000 yuan (US$900) for rural residents
if they are found of violating the rules.
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2006)