By Meg Jalsevac

SHANGHAI, January 9, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – It appears that some of the wealthy members of China’s population are finding ways to circumvent the nation’s one-child policy in order to have a second child. Chinese media has reported that just last month, well-known Chinese singer, Mao Amin and her husband welcomed a second child into their family, a little brother for their two year old daughter.

The news seems to have upset some Communist Party officials who have taken it as an opportunity to condemn those who look for loopholes in the policy in order to have a second child and assure the nation that the policy is not to be ignored. Yu Xuejun, director of the policy and legislative department of the State Population and Family Planning Commission said, “Family planning may be not that perfect but it will be a long-term fundamental national policy for the most populous country in the world.”

Amin’s spokesman said that she had abided by the official restrictions of the policy and that her second child was legal because of circumstances pertaining to her husband. He did not explain further.

However, recent media reports have questioned whether it is the financial stability and social connections of the Chinese elite that are enabling them to have a second child.

According to the stipulations of the one-child policy, city dwellers may have a second child if both parents are only children. Those who live in the country may have a second if the first child born is a girl or handicapped. Those who ignore these rules are subject to a large fine of up to a year’s wages upon the birth of a second child.

According to the Chinese website sohu.com, a shoe factory boss with a net worth of 14 million yuan was ordered to pay approximately 60,000 yuan (or USD $500) as a fine after the birth of his second child.

Several other loopholes in the family-planning policy are also available to those who can afford it. Women who give birth outside of China are permitted to bring their second child back into the country without penalty. Citizens registered as “overseas citizens” may also have a second child. According to sohu.com, a Chinese native named Zhang applied for a Malaysian Chinese certificate and this allowed him and his wife to have a second child.

However, these loopholes require the necessary funds to take advantage of them – a luxury the poor and mostly rural inhabitants of the nation do not enjoy. As previously reported by LifeSiteNews.com, there have been hundreds of thousands of forced abortions and sterilizations throughout many Chinese rural areas in a widespread governmental effort to enforce the one-child policy despite official claims in 2002 that such severe measures are no longer condoned.

Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao said last week that “maintaining a low birth rate in the countryside is crucial.”

Blind activist, Chen Guangcheng and his family have been severely persecuted for his efforts to publicize the atrocities committed in his native eastern province of Shandong in recent years. Guangcheng relates stories of whole families beaten until women subjected themselves to sterilization and forced abortions of full-term babies.

Due to international pressure and a withdrawal of UN funding initiated by the Bush administration, Chinese officials assured the world in 2002 that forced abortions and sterilizations would no longer be employed as a means to enforce the family planning policy and instead, financial penalties would be the consequence of having a second child.

Current facts and figures from the UN indicate that, at the current rate, in 2050 their will be 600m Chinese over 50, more than twice the number of citizens under 20. President of Population Research Institute, Steven Mosher predicts that those figures will force the Communist government to then shift its focus to eliminating the elderly population.

Some believe that, despite detrimental social forecasts for the nation, the Communist Party continues to enforce their current family planning policy as a means of total authority and social dominion over the population.
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