500 people expelled from Chinese Communist Party for violating one-child policy

For years, wealthy couples and Communist Party officials defied the one-child policy by paying only a fine. Now in Hubei province the authorities are cracking down, expelling and firing offenders.Further evidence of a widespread resistance to the policy?

BEJING (AsiaNews/Agencies) - China's ruling Communist Party has expelled 500 of its members in the central province of Hubei for defying the country's one-child policy.

According to official figures more than 93,000 people in Hubei province violated the policy last year, including 1,678 officials, lawmakers and political advisers.

State-owned Xinhua news agency reported that among the offenders, 395 were also dismissed from their posts, and seven national and local lawmakers lost their political status.

Under China's one-child policy adopted in the late 1970s a couple can only have a child, two if it lives in rural areas, as a way to contain population growth, save resources and guarantee the country's development.

Hitherto violations are only punished with fines, a situation which has favoured some people over others.
In fact, "more party members, celebrities and well-off people are violating the policies [by having more children] in recent years, which has undermined social equality," said Yang Youwang, director of the provincial family planning commission.

Last year, officials in Hubei province levied a record 765,500 yuan ($105,000) fine on a local lawmaker for flouting family planning laws. But expulsion from the party is the worst kind of punishment because it can lead to loss of job and social status.

The one-child policy has never the less come in for a lot of criticism because it has led to the progressive aging of the population and to an imbalance between the sexes as a result of a widespread preference for baby boys, selective abortons and female feticide.