Family planning law should not be too onerously enforced

THE PUBLIC HEALTH BUREAU of Chengwu county, Shandong province, fined a migrant worker couple 64,626 yuan ($9,570), in the form of the so-called social maintenance fee, for breaking the provincial rules made according to the Population and Family Planning Law. The local court then seized all of the couple's savings, 22,958 yuan, last month, after they failed to hand the fine to the bureau before the 30-day deadline expired. China Daily reporter Li Yang comments:

True, the law and the provincial regulation - which are based on the Constitution, in which family planning is still recognized as a national policy to adjust the population's growth to the needs of social and economic development plans - are legally binding, and all couples are obliged to carry out the policy, which is also entrenched as a general principle in the Marriage Law.

But neither the bureau nor the court should quote them as an excuse for their compulsory execution of the administrative fine without considering the consequences of their ruling: The fine is heavy enough to bankrupt the couple, who apparently lead a hand-to-mouth existence while raising three children.