CHINA:Chinese Communist Party cadres defy the country's one-child policy at their peril - family planning officials in the central province of Hubei expelled 500 party members last year for breaching the rules.
Family planning authorities in Hubei found 93,084 people breached the policy last year, including 1,678 officials, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Of the offending cadres, 500 were expelled from the Communist Party, 395 were dismissed from their posts, and seven national and local lawmakers lost their political status.
"More party members, celebrities, and well-off people are violating the policies in recent years, which has undermined social equality," said Yang Youwang, director of the commission.
Under the one-child policy, which China launched in 1980 to control population growth, most families are limited to having one child.
There are exceptions. In rural areas, couples are allowed have a second child if the first-born is a girl, a practice that has boosted a traditional preference for boys, and there have been reports of forced abortions and female infanticide.
Even though ultrasound tests to determine the baby's gender are technically illegal, underground ultrasounds and gender-selective abortions have resulted in there being 118 boys born for every 100 girls, potentially threatening social stability as more men have difficulty finding wives.
The policy was seen as a way of reining in population growth already running at dangerously high levels in the world's most populous nation.
Increasingly, the one-child policy is becoming meaningless to the new rich in China's cities, who merely choose to pay the fine and have the extra children.
The government reckons that since the policy was introduced, over 400 million births have been prevented. There is now an average birth rate of 1.8 children per couple in China, compared with six children when it was introduced.
The policy is generally unpopular, particularly in the countryside, and there is a feeling there are double standards about the policy, where the rich can afford to buy their way out, while the poor are forced to endure the wrath of the state.
There have been some incredible stories of breaches to the rules. In the neighbouring province of Hubei, 2,000 officials and celebrities were discovered to have breached rules between 2000 and 2005, including a lawmaker who had four children by four mistresses.
Enforcing the rules has been difficult as families become increasingly mobile because of the huge social movement in China these days. The wealthy often bribe officials as well as pay fines.
To help crack down on flagrant violations by officials, family planning officials in Hubei approved stern new regulations barring offenders for three years from government employment, holding elective office or being political advisers.