May 14 2007
Man fined $78,000 for second baby
POSTED: 10:09 a.m. EDT, May 14, 2007
BEIJING, China(AP) — A private businessman has been fined 600,000 yuan ($78,000) for breaking China’s strict one child policy, state media reported.
Xinhua News Agency said family planning officials in Anhui province handed out the fine. It did not identify the businessman or say how he broke the law.
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Few years ago I saw a documentary on PBS, they picked few Chinese from varied social backgrounds and revisited them years later. One of them was a carton packing factory worker who started his own ad agency – funny enough I saw him again on TV one day in Beijing that his firm was chosen for Olympics .. In the PBS interview, he got off his BMW, stepped into his spacious n luminous apartment, said, among other things that China should allow people who could afford to have more children to have them .. otherwise the country will soon be overwhelmed by farmers, which they consisted more than 75% ..
I couldn’t agree with him more. All my friends and relatives – the urbane and educated ones - stick with the one-child policy, because the free economy made them realize just how much does it take to raise a kid: not just tuition/housing etc., but the dancing, drawing, music, sports.. you basically need one spouse to stay home to be able to accomplish all of those and more. Few years ago, one cousin’s son who’s attending a college in Beijing said, “whenever there is phone calls, for us (the city slickers) are always our parents, but for those from far-reached regions, are always their sibling. ..”
Sibling! The one child policy started in 1979 … 山高皇帝远 but in many small areas the rule aren’t strictly enforced, hence sizeable populace ignoring the government’s call and having more then their allowed shares. Given the fact that China’s population is a problem, there has to be some sort of solution .. .. so in such condition, I’d rather see the affluent lot to have more children than the countryside folks .. .. the later should enlist cows or tractors to help in the fields.