A Chinese official reiterated the need of legal measures to stop rich people from having too many kids, which helps to ensure people's equality facing China's one- child policy.

"Every one should be equal in terms of the right of birth- giving," said Pan Guiyu, vice-minister of the State Commission for Population and Family Planning, during an online interview with a popular Chinese website.

Legal actions will be more effective than the current fining methods in restraining the rich from having more offspring, said Pan, also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which is in a ten- day annual session here.

"Imposing fines makes little difference to the rich," said Pan, noting that many business tycoons and show business celebrities are finding a number of ways to have two or more kids, including hiding in some remote rural areas, bribing birth-control officials and even emigrating abroad for giving the birth.

Pan's remarks came three days after another CPPCC member urged the adoption of tough measures in addition to monetary penalty on the same issue, which is arousing great social concern.

Yang Kuifu, a CPPCC population expert, has called for the government to give poor ranking to the rich who have breached the family planning policy.

Civil servants or people with state-run institutions generally abide by the one-child policy for fear of losing their jobs. But little stopped private business people or celebrities from having as many children as they wanted, Yang said.

The one-child family policy was enacted in the 1970's to curb a huge population explosion. In 2002 the law was amended to allow ethnic minorities to have more than one child and peasants to have a second child if their first is a girl, while restricting urban couples to only one child.

The fines can be as high as 150,000 yuan (US$20,000) for urban dwellers or as low as 7,000 yuan (US$900) for rural residents if they are found of violating the rules.

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2006)