Zhang Yimou 'seven children' claims trigger anger in China

[galvatron]

Zhang Yimou 'seven children' claims trigger anger in China

Film director behind opening ceremony for Beijing Olympics faces up to £17m fine if found to have broken 'one child' policy.
Renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, who designed theopening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, is under investigation over claims he broke strict family planning laws by fathering seven children, state media have reported.The website of the People's Daily, the official Communist party newspaper, quoted suggestions that Zhang could face a fine of up to 160m yuan (£16.75m). Parents can be ordered to pay up to twice their annual income for breaching the law, though it is unclear how the estimate of the director's yearly income was reached. Many avoid fines or pay well below the maximum.
China's one child policy limits most urban couples to one birth but allows rural families to have a second if their first is a girl. Other exemptions include allowing a childless individual whose spouse already has a child to have another.
Violations are increasingly common and there is growing pressure from experts to abolish the law, which was originally designed to last 30 years.
But offenders can face heavy fines, and although forced sterilisations and abortions are illegal they have continued to take place. Disparity in the treatment of those who break the laws has fuelled public anger about inequality.
"It is just a policy for limiting the poor's right to give birth," one angry microblogger wrote in response to the news about Zhang.
Another asked: "Why doesn't China have the world's respect? Look at the rich and officials with flocks of wives and mistresses … If ordinary people had more children they would be punished or fined to death. He is fine.
"Zhang's quality is worse than ordinary people. An unfair society can never receive respect."
The reports followed claims in Chinese media that Zhang had several children with his two wives and two other women. His personal life has been the subject of gossip for years, notably over his long relationship with Gong Li, whom he met when she was a drama student and who starred in many of his films.
The official news agency Xinhua said officials in Wuxi, the hometown of the 61-year-old's second wife, were investigating.
The website of the People's Daily said it was unclear where Zhang's children were born, citing a worker at Jiangsu province's population and family planning commission.
Zhang's Los Angeles-based agent did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Associated Press reported.
link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...n-claims-china

[Trien Chieu]

Leave the guy alone. Who cares how many children he has. It's none of anyone else business.

[Ken Cheng]

Leave the guy alone. Who cares how many children he has. It's none of anyone else business.

He needs to follow the law of his country like everyone else. Being rich and famous shouldn't get anybody an exemption from the law.

[charbydis]

Overpopulation is a big and consistent problem in China. The one child policy does help the problem in some way although there are specifics that i disagree with. If the everyday farmer must pay extra to have a second kid (by selling his property and crops at low prices just to keep the baby), then the all famous director must also pay for his seven kids (and he is rich). There should be no leniency due to his fame.

[Trien Chieu]

I meant there is no need for anger, just make the guy pays the penalty like everyone else who violate the law, no more and no less.