Rich men challenge family planning policy
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-16 06:04

Higher fees for rich

"Although many people cherish the dream of having more than one child, only a handful of the new rich can make the dream come true. How will this inequity affect working families psychologically?" asked Zhang Yi, a researcher with the CASS Research Institute of Population and Labour Economy.

Zhang believes the current social maintenance fee has become a backdoor for the wealthy to have more children, and suggests the fee should be levied as a proportion of a family's actual income.

This view was echoed by Zhang Fenggan, with the Population Research Institute under Guangzhou-based Zhongshan University.

Zhang said that publicity of the current family planning policy needed to be improved and that fines for breaking the law should be increased.

With 1.3 billion people, China is the most populated country in the world. Projections show its population will reach 1.33 billion by the end of this year and 1.6 billion in 2050.

The Beijing-based Economic Information Daily said it estimated that among rural Chinese dwellers, who account for some 70 per cent of the nation's population on the Chinese mainland, the rate of having more than one baby is somewhere between 20 per cent and 30 per cent.

It puts a serious dent into the country's family planning policy, the paper said.

(China Daily 12/16/2005 page5)