The National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC), China's watchdog of population issues, has started to investigate media reported illegal family planning practices in east China's Shandong Province, a population official said in Beijing Friday.

Yu Xuejun, NPFPC's spokesman, said complaints about family planning work in Linyi City of Shandong Province were on the rise earlier this year, on which NPFPC and local population and family planning commissions have since then initiated investigations.

According to some media reports, population-control abuses such as forced abortion in rural villages and detaining close relatives of those who decline to have sterilization operations were found to occur in Linyi City.

As stipulated by the Law on Population and Family Planning, entering into effect in September 2002, staff members of government agencies who "infringe on a citizen's personal rights, property rights or other legitimate rights and interests" when promoting family planning should be investigated for criminal liability or given an administrative sanction.

Yu promised a "thorough probe" to ensure that all parties concerned are treated in a fair and objective manner.

"The investigation remains unfinished, but once it is finished, any infringements of the law that are proven to be factual will be punished."

Yu urged those personnel from family planning authorities to take the lead in enforcing the law and other relevant laws and regulations.

He said China has worked hard to implement the human-centered principle in population and family planning programs since the convocation of 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.
 
(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2005)