Houston Community News >> Chinese Businessman Fined For Breaking One Child Policy

5/14/2007 (AP) BEIJING-A private businessman has been fined 600,000 yuan (US$78,000) for breaking China's strict one child policy, state media reported.

Xinhua News Agency said family planning officials in Anhui province handed out the fine. It did not identify the businessman or say how he broke the law.

China's family planning policy, implemented in the late 1970s, limits most urban couples to one child and rural families to two in an attempt to control population growth and conserve natural resources in the world's most populous country.

Rising incomes mean some newly rich can afford to break the rules and pay resulting fines. But last month the government said it would crack down on rich lawbreakers with bigger fines.

China has about 1.3 billion people, 20 percent of the world's total. The government has pledged to keep the population under 1.36 billion in 2010, and under 1.45 billion in 2020.

(Contributed by AP)