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The Union-Tribune is looking for people who have wireless Internet access in their vehicles to talk with us for a story. Please call staff writer Kathryn Balint at (619) 293-2848 or e-mail her at kathryn.balint@
uniontrib.com
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Farmer breached China family rules, house ransacked

REUTERS

12:18 a.m. May 25, 2007

BOBAI, China – Bu Feng's one-storey brick and concrete farmhouse in southwestern China lies dark and nearly empty.

'There used to be glass on all these windows,' a neighbour said. 'There used to be a wooden door, a nice one. And, look, the electric fan is gone,' he added, pointing through a window at the bare living room ceiling.

'The government took it all.'

Earlier this month, as locals tell it, Yulin city in Guangxi region launched a harsh campaign to rein in 'excess births' and strictly enforce the one-child-per-family rule imposed nationwide in 1980 to curb China's soaring population growth.

Those deemed to have broken the rule at any time since 1980 without paying the requisite fine were served a notice ordering them to pay exorbitant 'social support fees' or face the consequences.

Bu has three children, and like others in the neighbouring hills, he couldn't pay the fine, so officials came about 10 days ago to collect in kind. Bu wasn't even home – neighbours say he is in the regional capital seeking medical care for a sick child.

In his house, a cheap-looking shelf stacked with clothes remains in one room, broken and abandoned by the people who came to collect the other goods, the neighbour said.

Last week, hundreds of protesters in Bobai county and neighbouring areas fought officials and police, burnt vehicles and attacked government offices in anger at the tough new family planning drive.

Twenty-eight people were detained in Bobai, the Xinhua state news agency reported. Some locals said thousands had protested.

After the riots, the county relaxed the birth control drive and some townships returned many of the items taken from locals.

For years, family planning was lax in the area. But in early March, Yulin city, of which Bobai is a county, held a meeting to assess the past year's efforts and set goals for 2007.

YELLOW CARD

In a speech, Mayor Jin Xiangjun noted that Bobai had received a 'yellow card' warning in 2006. He called for 'stabilisation of the low birth level by all means necessary' across Yulin and said leaders would lose their jobs for missing targets.

This year, too, the costs of family planning work were to be paid directly out of the local coffers, to be funded by collection of 'social support fees', Jin said in a copy of the speech seen on a Web site affiliated with the Yulin government.

China's population control Web site, www.chinapop.gov.cn, said in late April that Bobai's party committee, government leaders and other officials had been 'dealt with' for their poor birth control record.

A handful of leaders in the county had been dismissed from office, and 104 other workers in public office sacked for violating family planning laws, it said.

In Datong village, where Bu's family lives, the government is still holding many of the household items they took, locals say.

At about the same time Bu's house was raided, Zhang's family was also given notice. Zhang has two granddaughters, 7 and 8.

'You, married couple, have broken the law and had...' – blank underlined space with the number 2 handwritten in it – '...children, and should pay a social support fee of...' – another blank space with the number 14,598 – '...yuan,' the notice started.

According to a document handed to villagers detailing how the fees were calculated, the average income of farmers this year is 2,797 yuan ($365).

'They came with a truck,' Zhang said, showing a list he kept of all the items that were taken. 'Rice hulling machine, sofa, 500 catties (250 kilos) of rice, brass clock...'

Two days ago, Zhang was able to collect his goods, and now they are back in place in his home. 'I still had to pay 800 yuan,' he said.


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