A Farmer In China Charged 90,000 Yuan For Having Eight Children

A man in China broke its strict birth control policy on account of his misogynistic values and was charged largely for the same. The man kept having children until he had two sons and ended up having 8 children.

The man was fined 2.6million yuan for having 8 children and breaking China's draconian child laws. However, after years of negotiation, a local government in western China reduced the fines to 90,000 yuan, reported Jiemian News on Monday.

The 50-year-old farmer who is a local of Anyue County in Sichuan, had 5 daughters with his ex-wife before having his two sons in 2006 and 2010 respectively. Since his financial condition was not stable enough to sustain 8 children, he had given away one of his daughters who was born between the two sons.

The farmer who is known by his last name Liu had divorced his former wife in 2016 and has now been living with his seven children and new wife.

Under China's set laws for family planning, there has been a restricted number of children that has been allotted to each couple according to the local government norms. Violation of the same can cause payment of fine or a "social support fee".

However, Beijing had provided some relaxations on its birth control policies in view of the rapidly ageing Chinese Society. On account of the same the birth control policies of Sichuan had gone through several amendments.

Now since Liu had been exceeding the allotted number of children, he had already been paying an unknown amount of fine over the years. According to local reporters, Liu was charged a fine of 2.6 million yuans in 2019 for his last three children.

The authorities said that even though they know Liu could not afford to pay such a big amount, they couldn't turn a blind eye to his follies and had to make him pay the penalty. Following this, three directors of the family planning department of Sichuan have also been penalised since they couldn't make him pay the amount.

This made the authorities finally decide to reduce the fine to 90,000 yuan which could be paid by Liu in instalments. This decision was taken by the local government after consulting several authorities, lawyers and local courts .

China had already taken down its one child policy followed by its two-child limit in 2015. This allowed each couple in China to have up to three children. However, exceeding this limit can result in payment of strict and heavy fines.