Hundreds of Chinese officials violate 1 child rule

Beijing, July 9: Nearly 2,000 officials in a central Chinese province violated the country's one child policy, including a lawmaker who had four children by four mistresses, state media said.

For more than 25 years, the world's most populous country has limited most couples to one, or in some cases two children, as it sought to control its ballooning population, now at 1.3 billion.

Up to 1,968 officials in Hunan province breached the policy between 2000 and 2005, the Xinhua news agency said yesterday, citing the provincial family planning commission.

The commission also exposed 21 national and local lawmakers, 24 political advisers, 112 entrepreneurs and six senior intellectuals, Xinhua said.

Several officials were exposed when graft probes revealed they kept mistresses.

''Some officials who have had more than one child but had gone their way unnoticed during their tenure of leadership were exposed when they were investigated for corruption,'' Xinhua said.

China credits family planning laws with preventing 400 million births and boosting prosperity in a country with a fifth of the world's population but only seven per cent of its land.

The family-planning policy has exacerbated a gender imbalance in China, where access to ultrasound tests and gender-selective abortions have resulted in 118 boys born for every 100 girls.

Xinhua noted there were increasing reports of officials, tycoons and entertainment stars having more than one child, and blamed local authorities who feared issuing fines or were too lenient.

Officials in China's eastern Anhui province levied a record 600,000 yuan (80,000 dollar) fine on a private entrepreneur for flouting family planning laws, state media reported in May.

Reuters

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