Official suspended after father of 5 kills himself over fines
Print Edition
A village Party chief in north China’s Hebei Province is under investigation after a father killed himself at the official’s home over fines for extra children.
The Qiuxian County government said Ai Liankun, Party chief of Gongbao Village, was acting on his own when Ai Guangdong was asked to pay the fines.
Since the villager couldn’t pay, the official sold all the corn in Ai Guangdong’s fields for 6,220 yuan (US$1,024).
The local government had not issued a fine order, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.
Ai Liankun will be transferred to Party disciplinary authorities after he finishes assisting a police investigation, local publicity officials said. He has been suspended from his post.
According to the Southern Metropolis Daily, the Party chief led a group of five who forcibly removed almost 3,500 kilograms of corn from the villager’s fields on December 3. Growing corn was the only source of income for Ai Guangdong, his wife, and their five children — four girls and a little boy.
The 45-year-old villager went to the Party chief’s home on December 4, seeking justice, the report said, but ended up drinking pesticide. He was taken to hospital but died after emergency treatment.
Police said Ai had killed himself by drinking highly-toxic phorate.
Ai Guangdong’s family said the Party official and his relatives “disappeared” after the death. They said they wanted to know what had happened at his home.
Ai Guangdong couldn’t have taken pesticide there because he didn’t have any at home, a relative said. Also, several pesticide stores in the village denied having sold pesticide to him.
Ai Guangdong’s wife Xie Yufeng said officials started fining them when their second child — a girl — was born in 2003.
“They asked us to pay 7,000 yuan at once, but we couldn’t afford to. Then they came to our home from time to time,” Xie told the Southern Metropolis Daily.
Under family planning regulations, rural couples whose first child is a girl can have a second child. They will be fined when they have a third child.
Wu Haiqing, deputy director of the family planning authority in Qiuxian County, said Ai Guangdong’s family should have been fined at least 100,000 yuan for the extra births.
He didn’t say whether the family would be immune from punishment.
After the villager’s death, the county government promised to support his four children until they finished their compulsory education.
His wife and four children will also get government allowances, and their dilapidated house will be repaired when they receive government funds.
The family felt satisfied with the arrangement, the Beijing Youth Daily said in its report.
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