Rich people hindering family planning goals: official

An official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission has warned that China could face a "population rebound" because celebrities and the rich are ignoring family-planning regulations. Early marriages in rural areas are also being blamed.

A report from Xinhua quoted Zhang Weiqing, director of the commission as saying that the benefits China has reaped from its family planning policy could be lost because of loosening of birth control measures in local areas and unlicensed births in rich families.

China's family planning policy has been in place since the late 1970s and allows most urban couples to have only one child. However, rising incomes allow some newly rich families to have more than one child and just pay off the fine. A survey from the Family Planning Commission showed that nearly ten percent of rich people and celebrities have as many as three children.

In rural areas, the family planning policies are broken because of the desire to have male heirs. Another contributing factor is the growing number of early marriages. According to AP, under the Chinese Constitution, men are allowed to marry when they reach 22 and women when they reach 20.

Zhang said that there is added pressure from the baby boom brought by parents born in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the first generation after the establishment of the family planning policy, who were allowed to have two children each.

Zhang said that the administration is working on more preferential policies for families who abide by the birth limits.