Chinese Defying Procreation Laws
BEIJING - Authorities in central China have expelled 500 people from the Communist Party for defying the country’s one-child policy, state media said Monday.
More than 93,000 people in Hubei province violated the policy last year, including hundreds of officials, lawmakers and political advisers, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
China has been trying to crack down on officials and the wealthy who ignore its strict family planning laws. Expulsion from the party could end a political career or prohibit promotions.
Xinhua said 395 offenders were dismissed from their posts, but it wasn’t immediately clear if they were included in the 500 who were expelled from the Communist Party. It also wasn’t clear if the offenders were additionally penalized. Fines are another common punishment for violating the one-child policy.
Under the policy, implemented in the late 1970s, most urban couples are limited to one child and rural families to two to control population growth and conserve natural resources.
China’s 1.3 billion people account for 20 percent of the world’s total. The government has set growth targets, pledging to keep the population under 1.36 billion in 2010, and under 1.45 billion in 2020.
But rising incomes mean some of the newly rich—such as businessmen and entertainment stars—can afford to break the rules and pay the resulting fines.
“More party members, celebrities, and well-off people are violating the policies in recent years, which has undermined social equality,” Yang Youwang, director of Hubei’s family planning commission, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Telephone calls to the provincial family planning commission and provincial Communist Party office were not answered.
Last week, state media reported that family planning officials in Hubei were powerless against the number of people who were brazenly flouting the rules. In one case, a person was fined $106,000 for having a second child, the highest amount ever in Hubei, but had paid only $14,000, the report said.
Government figures from October show that there are 73.76 million party members out of China’s 1.3 billion people.
(AP)
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“Government figures from October show that there are 73.76 million party members out of China’s 1.3 billion people.”
Damn it, their going to eat us out of house and planet
January 7th, 2008 at 2:53 amRemember the old joke people tell kids about the moon being made of cheese? now i know why China wants to go there, they dont know its a joke and they have to feed 1.3 billion people.
January 7th, 2008 at 5:44 am