Expert urges strict birth control over the rich
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-03-05 20:13

More measures should be adopted in addition to monetary penalty to prevent China's wealthy people from having more children, which runs counter to the national policy of one child, a population expert said in Beijing on Sunday.

Business tycoons and show business celebrities are joining rural people to challenge China's family planning policy by paying the punitive "social maintenance fee" to have two or more offspring.

"Simply imposing fines or administrative punishments would not produce an ideal result," said Yang Kuifu, vice chairman of the Committee of Population, Resources and Environment under the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which is in a ten-day session.

Yang said he had presented a proposal to the annual session of the top advisory body, namely the CPPCC National Committee, to invite reasonable and effective ideas to tackle the problem.

Statistics showed that at least 84 multi-baby cases were registered between 2002 and 2005 among affluent citizens in Shanghai, China's commercial hub. And there was a growing trend of the cases. In Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, 76 wealthy people were punished for having extra babies in 2000.

Generally speaking, those working in governmental departments or state-run institutions are afraid of losing their jobs for having more than one child. However, prohibitive measures are not effective enough for private business people or celebrities.

Yang proposed that the personal credit of private business people or celebrities be tainted if they choose to have more children.

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