Zhang fined US$1.2m for 3 ‘extra’ children
Print Edition
Film director Zhang Yimou has been fined nearly 7.5 million yuan (US$1.2 million) for violating China’s family planning policy, authorities said yesterday, the heaviest fine for such an offense.
Zhang and his wife, Chen Ting, were given 30 days to pay though they can appeal, according to a letter from the family planning bureau in Binhu District of the eastern city of Wuxi, Chen’s hometown.
They violated family planning law by having three children before marriage and having no permission for the births, the bureau said. Online reports surfaced in May last year that Zhang had three children with Chen, though he and ex-wife Xiao Hua already had a daughter.
Since the late 1970s, most couples in China’s urban areas had been allowed only one child, and rural couples two if the first-born was a girl, as the government reined in population growth.
The government said in November that it would allow couples to have a second child if either spouse is an only child.
Two months after the reports of the couple’s violations, the Binhu District family planning authority began investigating, the district’s publicity department said in a statement.
The investigation found Chen gave birth in 2001, 2004 and 2006 in Beijing, all before the couple registered their marriage.
Binhu investigators wrote letters to the couple asking for their cooperation but got no response, the statement said.
At the end of November, the couple sent representatives to Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, and in an open letter dated December 1, Zhang for the first time admitted he and Chen had two sons and a daughter.
Chen said they delayed getting their marriage certificate because of concerns that Zhang’s identity would be exposed during the process.
They registered their marriage in Wuxi in 2011 to help the children get hukou (household registration) documents. The bureau sent investigators to several cities to collect evidence of the couple’s income as that would determine the size of the fine.
Chen earned nothing in the three years in question. Zhang earned just 2,760 yuan in 2000, but 1.06 million yuan in 2003 and 2.5 million yuan in 2005.
Officials decided the fine should be 71,928 yuan for their first child, 2.2 million yuan for the second and 5.2 million for the third.
Under the provincial rules, each spouse of a couple violating the one-child policy faces a fine four times the average local disposable income in the year before the child is born.
If the couple has two or more additional children, the fine is five to eight times that figure. And if a couple’s income is twice the local disposable income, the part exceeding average earnings is charged one to two times.
On December 29, Zhang made a public apology for the violations. He said both he and his parents held the traditional view that more children brought more happiness.
Zhang is one of China’s best-known film directors. His films include “Raise the Red Lantern” and “House of Flying Daggers.”
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