Houston Community News >> Chinese Rich Skirt One Child Policy

1/21/2008 (Reuters) - Many Chinese celebrities have either changed their nationality or given their children a foreign nationality to skirt the one-child policy, state media said as it announced yet another crackdown. “Beijing will impose fines on celebrities who violate the one-child rule that will be much higher than for common citizens,” Xinhua news agency said, quoting a senior family planning official.

Earlier measures, issued by the National Population and Family Planning Commission and 10 other agencies in September, also singled out the elite as needing to play their part in controlling the country’s population.

China credits family planning laws with preventing 400 million births and thereby boosting prosperity in a country that now has 1.3 billion people, a fifth of the world’s total. “In recent years, more celebrities such as film stars and sports stars have faced media criticism over the size of their families,” Xinhua said, naming one football star who was fined 50,000 yuan (about $7,000) for having a second child.

(Contributed by Reuters)