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Zhang Yimou and his wife Chen Ting. [File photo]

Filmmaker Zhang Yimou has promised to pay 7.48 million yuan (US$1.24 million) in fines for fathering three "extra" children -- a breach to China's family planning policy.

Most married urban couples in China are allowed to have only one child, while many rural parents can have two, if the first is a girl.

The 62-year-old director is famous for film spectacles such as "House of Flying Daggers" (2004) and for directing the opening and closing of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He should also be responsible for the many "impressions" extravaganza that have mushroomed in many scenic areas in recent years.

He was fined for three children with his current wife, Chen Ting. Zhang's children are lucky because their wealthy father can afford the fines.

Untold numbers of "illegal" children are not so fortunate.

The case has put the spotlight on China's family planning policy, its heavy, sometimes unaffordable fines, and punishment of violations.

These can leave innocent children illegal since they lack proper documents (birth certificate, hukou residential registration, and national ID).

They are virtually invisible nonpersons denied residential benefits of public education, medical service and other social welfare benefits.

Nonperson

They cannot enter public schools or university, they cannot open a bank account, marry or legally hold a job. They cannot board a train, take a flight or register at a hotel.

Out-of-wedlock or otherwise "extra" children are almost always denied such benefits of registered citizens, if fines are not paid.

Fines are based on income and differ in different areas.

Xiaojie, an 8-year-old boy in Beijing is without hukou and his divorced, single mother cannot afford the fine of 330,000 yuan to legalize his status. The woman, Liu Fei, has a "legal" daughter with her ex-husband.

After she was divorced, she bore Xiaojie, the son of a married man surnamed Li, in Zhengzhou, capital of Henen Province.

In 2010 Liu took Xiaojie back to Bejing but was told she had violated family planning policy and had to pay a fine for the boy to receive hukou.

Local authorities in Fangshan District, where Liu and her son live, calculated the fine at 14 times Fangshan's average annual income, in accordance with local rules.

Liu and Li each had a child before Xiaojie was born. Xiaojie is considered a third child.

The fine for a second child is usually three to 10 times the average income. If a couple, married or not, have a third child, the fine is doubled.

Xiaojie told Xinmin Weekly he wanted to join a gang when he grew up to take revenge on police and the family planning office, the two agencies mainly responsible for hukou residential registration and punishment for extra children.

Without a birth certificate, a child's bloodline and status of birth cannot be verified. It's as though he or she doesn't exist.

An earlier report describes 20-year-old Li Xue in Beijing as an invisible woman. She was her parents' second child, but never officially existed, though she is now an adult.

Lack of documents are not the only problem for illegal children. They face challenges to their personal safety and are more easily trafficked than other children.

In Chifeng City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a nurse was detained after stealing a newborn infant, an out-of-wedlock child, whom she sold to a family for 40,000 yuan last November.

The nurse was held on suspicion of child trafficking after telling the mother the child had been stillborn.

The 18-year-old unmarried mother didn't believe the nurse and sought police assistance. An officer turned her down , saying there was no evidence of "crime."

Recently the kidnapped boy's family told the story to state media, and that got attention.

Some police and hospital staff have been suspended and are under investigation, the local government said last Tuesday.

In this case, a vulnerable single mother was not able to protect her out-of-wedlock baby. All because she had violated family planning policy. That is not an isolated tragedy.

A single mother in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, made headlines after she abandoned her two out-of-wedlock daughters at home for a month where they starved to death. One was was 1 year old, the other 2.

The mother Le Yan is pregnant again and expected to deliver a child next month in prison.

She was sentence to a life imprisonment for murder in September. She is now under house arrest until she gives birth. She and boyfriend were drug addicts. She is illiterate.

Illiterate mother

Her defense argued that Le herself had been born out of wedlock and was neglected by her own parents.

"How could she care for her own daughters since she was never looked after herself," counsel argued.

We hope the slight relaxation of family planning policies — allowing more married couples to have second children — will reduce the number of tragedies.

It is unlikely, however, to change the plight of out-of-wedlock or otherwise extra children and those whose parents cannot pay fines.

Today, couples in which one or both spouses are only children are allowed to have two children.

Couples in which a first child is seriously disabled are allowed to have a second child. In many rural areas, couples are already allowed a second child if the first is a girl.

The policy has been eased because of low birth numbers, a graying population, shrinking workforce and heavy burden on couples to care for four grandparents.

Little thought has been given to suffering "illegal" children.

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