Beijing to Raise Fines on Elites Who Violate the One-Child Rule By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING (AP) — Celebrity has its perks, but in Beijing, large families are not one of them.
Family planning authorities in the city intend to increase fines for the rich and famous in an attempt to stem growing violations of the Communist government’s strict limits on the number of children the Chinese are permitted to have, the official Xinhua news agency reported Monday.
Fines for violating the policy can bankrupt an average family. But they are easily paid by the wealthy and famous, who in some cases can use their influence to avoid paying fines entirely.
While the exact amounts were still being debated, fines for the wealthy will be set many times higher than the fines for other Chinese, Xinhua said, quoting the director of Beijing’s family planning commission.

The announcement follows recent reports in the state news media bemoaning the brazen flouting of family planning policies by government officials, successful businessmen, athletes, entertainers and others among the country’s newly wealthy.

“Celebrities and well-off people should not have any privileges for having more children,” Zhang Weiqing, director of the State Commission on Family Planning, was quoted as telling officials at a recent meeting.

Mr. Zhang said that while he believed that only a small number of celebrities were in violation of the policy limiting family size, their fame ensured that their behavior had an amplified “negative social influence,” the report said.

China limits most urban couples to one child and rural families to two in an attempt to control population growth and to conserve natural resources. China is the world’s most populous nation, with 1.3 billion people.

The limits, instituted about 30 years ago, have been credited with preventing 400 million births.
However, there have been some side effects, including a gender imbalance reflecting the traditional preference for male offspring, and the prospect of a shrinking work force to support large numbers of elderly people.

The one child rule has several consequences. The first creates a gender inbalance as males are deemed more desirable than females if the couple is only able to have the one child. Because of this many pregnancies are terminated if the couple find out that the child will be female, this raises many ethical issues about the rule.

Another problem with the current rule is the fines that people face for breaking this rule. Put simply, poor families may be ruined by a fine, the affluent are barely affected. This will prolong, if not increase, inequality in China and the wealth gap between the richest and poorest.