Twenty-one people in northeast China's Liaoning Province have been barred from taking their seats as lawmakers or as political advisors because they violated the country's one-child law.

"Violation of family planning policy has become a veto criterion in the election of lawmakers and political advisors at all levels," said Mu Weiyong, vice director of the provincial population and family planning commission.

Liaoning also imposed tougher penalties on members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), cadres, and model workers.

"Apart from being fined, they will have a permanent black mark on their records and they will be barred from future awards and honors," Wu said. In cases that had an "especially bad social effect", the culprits would be exposed in the media.

With a population of 41 million, Liaoning is faced with a serious gender imbalance, as in 13 of its 14 cities, the sex ratios of second children in favor of boys exceeds the average, which is between 103 and 107 boys to 100 girls.

China's gender imbalance can be traced back to the late 1980s when B-ultrasound technologies used for gender identification of fetuses became available and some Chinese women chose to abort after learning that they were carrying girls.

The sex ratio for newborns in China is 119 boys to 100 girls, with imbalances of up to 130 boys in parts of some provinces, such as Jiangxi, Guangdong, Anhui and Henan, according to a report last year from the China Youth and Children Research Center and Beijing's Renmin University of China.

China's family planning policy was enacted in the late 1970s to limit families to one child and encourage late marriages and childbearing. The policy was codified as the Population and Family Planning Law, which came into effect in September 2002.

A circular, co-issued by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and 10 other departments in Septmeber last year, stipulates that government officials and Communist Party members will be barred from promotion if they have more children than the law allows.

A reward system would be established to encourage the public to report law-breaking Party members and officials, the circular said.

In some provinces like Shandong, measures to curb the growing gender imbalance have been included in government appraisal.

(Xinhua News Agency April 4, 2008)