Baby boom a perk that only elite can afford
The rich and famous are paying exorbitant fines to bypass country's controversial one-child policy
GEOFFREY YORK            Globe and Mail                May 8, 2007
BEIJING - China's controversial one-child policy, which has led to forced abortions and sterilizations, is facing a new assault from an unexpected group: the rich and famous.
The nouveaux riches, an increasingly powerful class in China, are paying big money to be exempted from the one-child limit, and this could jeopardize efforts to control the growth of the world's most populous nation, a Chinese official warned yesterday.
Some wealthy families and show-business celebrities are paying $20,000 or more in official penalties for evading the one-child limit, and they see it as a small price to pay for the privilege, Chinese media have reported.
The latest revelations will fuel the outrage of the ordinary masses, already bitterly resentful of the perks and privileges of the wealthy. The widening gap between the rich and poor has sparked fears among government officials who worry that the gap will destabilize Chinese society and trigger class conflict.
The one-child policy was introduced in 1979 to restrain China's fast-rising population, which has reached 1.3 billion today. Most urban couples are limited to one child and most rural couples are limited to two children.
The policy, enforced with ruthless zeal in some parts of the country, has managed to moderate the growth of China's population over the past two decades. But now there is a growing risk of a "population rebound," according to the latest warning.
Zhang Weiqing, the top Chinese family-planning official, said the widening gap between rich and poor is threatening the one-child policy, since wealthy families often "disdain" the policy and simply "pay to have as many children as they like," the state-run Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
The gulf between China's rich and poor grows wider every year. In 2005, the most recent data available, the top 10 per cent of urban dwellers were earning 9.2 times more than the bottom 10 per cent. The gap had increased from the previous year, when the richest were earning 8.9 times more than the poorest.
At the same time, the average urban resident is earning 3.2 times more than the average farmer, an "alarming" gap in comparison to other countries, another Chinese official said in February.
While this widening income gap is dangerous enough, some of the most extreme anger is aimed at business tycoons and wealthy showbiz personalities who seem to consider themselves above the law.
"We found out that most celebrities and rich people have two children, and 10 per cent have three," Yu Xuejun, a senior official of China's population and family planning commission, said in an interview with a Beijing newspaper in March.
"This phenomenon must be stopped," he said.
The government vowed that any celebrities or tycoons who violate the one-child policy will be prohibited from receiving awards or honours in the future. The idea is to hit the celebrities in their public image, rather than just their pocketbook. "They will have to pay a dear price," Mr. Yu declared.
But it's unclear whether the penalties are working. One affluent Beijing woman said she and her husband had happily paid $13,000 for the right to have a second child. "This sum of money is nothing to our family," she said to a reporter from China Youth Daily.
Some wealthy families have reportedly paid more than $100,000 for the right to have a second child.
Earlier this year, an opinion survey of almost 8,000 people on a Chinese website found that the vast majority were outraged that wealthy families could violate the one-child policy.
One professor at a Beijing university commented that the exemption is the same as allowing a wealthy person to drive through the red lights at traffic intersections.
Other commentators have criticized celebrities such as basketball star Yao Ming and Hollywood actress Zhang Ziyi, both of whom have casually remarked in interviews that they might decide to have several children.
Population rebound
China's vigorous economic growth has produced an increasingly powerful wealthy class that doesn't mind paying fines for an exemption to the country's one-child policy.
Chinese birth rate, per 1,000 people
| 1975 | Â 23.01 |
| 1980 | Â 18.21 |
| 1985 | Â 21.04 |
| 1990 | Â 21.06 |
| 1995 | Â 17.12 |
| 2000 | Â 14.03 |
| 2005 | Â 12.22 |
| 2007 | Â 13.45 |