What was originally meant to be a time for celebration and rejoicing had evolved into criticism towards mainland Chinese actress Betty Sun (孙俪). On February 8, Betty Sun – best known for her period drama The Legend of Zhen Huan <后宫甄嬛传> – announced via her Weibo that she is pregnant with her second child. The 31-year-old actress married 35-year-old fellow actor Deng Chao (邓超) in 2010, and their first-born, a boy, was born in 2011. Knowingly violating China’s one-child policy, Betty’s second pregnancy drew backlash that the rich can buy their way to having more children. Betty wrote, “[Today] is Mr. Deng’s 35th birthday. It is [my son's] third birthday, and Director Deng’s first birthday! Today also marks the day I’ve become a superwoman for the fourth year! I am anticipating our brand new family model: 1+1=4.” Betty shared photos of the family spending time at a beach. In the photos, Betty is wearing a sundress and looks to be at least five months pregnant. Though many netizens gave Betty and her family their heartfelt blessings and congratulatory messages on her pregnancy, others were left confused. Due to mainland China’s one-child policy to control the nation’s growing population, mainland Chinese citizens – with the exception of ethnic minorities – are only allowed to have one child. Families in which neither parent has siblings are allowed to have two. Those who violate the policy are required to pay a hefty fine, and Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou (张艺谋), who was discovered to have violated the policy by having three children, had to pay about 7.5 million RMB to the local family planning bureau. Betty’s second pregnancy is a violation of the one-child policy and raised questions as to why celebrities can play by a different set of rules. A netizen commented on Betty’s pregnancy, “Your Highness, may I ask if you hold the permit to have a second child?” Another wrote, “I also really admire your television dramas, but shouldn’t the one-child policy be equal to everyone? So celebrities have the privilege to have more kids?” Creds: Sina
Stupid people, just cause China have the one child policy, doesn't mean people can't have more than one child, it's just going to cost the parents a lot of money.
If anyone is interested, with a simple net search into why there is such anger over the One Child Policy (OCP), one will quickly realize that the problem isn't simply one of money, though that certainly does comes into play. It's primarily one of power, corruption and control. Even as the policy is federal (invoked by the People's Republic of China), the implementation, maintenance and enforcement of it occurs primarily at a local party level. It is here that is the source of long simmering anger and resentment. It has been reported that women who have attempted to have second children in the past, have been literally kidnapped and forced to undergo abortions and sterilized, while their husbands were beaten. Some have had their homes confiscated; others who couldn't come up with an exorbitant amount of cash have had their children forcibly 'adopted'; that is, stolen by the state and then sold into the black market for babies. In fact, some of the babies that Americans so readily have brought home through Chinese adoptions have long been suspected to have been sourced by such brutal mechanisms. Still others who have paid stiff fines to have such secondary children then find that these children are not eligible for state identity cards; in other words, they're not real people in the eyes of the Chinese government. They can't go to school, see a doctor, or have any social protections as "guaranteed" by the state. Thus, IMHO, your "Stupid people, just cause (sic) China have the one child policy, doesn't mean people can't have more than one child, it's just going to cost the parents a lot of money" comment is rather reminiscent of the obliviousness in the "Let them eat cake" quote, often mistakenly attributed as having been said by Marie Antoinette. Recalling that instance, Antoinette was reportedly informed that the masses were starving, that they didn't even have a basic foodstuff as simple as bread; she supposedly flippantly replied, "Let them eat cake," knowing full well that cake or other fancy foods were even more expensive and would be even harder for the poor to obtain. That is, if people couldn't afford something as simple as bread, how the hell could they then afford to buy and eat cake? This story, though erroneous was repeated throughout France, continuing to stoke the common man's anger at the royals and their completely out of touch administration of the country; though historically inaccurate, it nonetheless dramatically gets to the heart of what the people were so worked up about to the point where they overthrew the king and chopped his and Antoinette's heads off. In China's case, openly flouting the OCP has grown into a symbol of affluence and power; those that are well connected, (usually because of money) and live on the right side of the regime can get away with it, while the average man cannot. It's like the oft told stories of the sons of high up party members, who break the law (including murder) with impunity and are rarely, if ever, punished. The corrupt and brutal, seemingly two tier system that is widely acknowledged to be tied to power, influence and the way that it is administered; that is what people are angry about. Frankly, the people aren't stupid at all. And in that vein, given that this actress is from China and is fully aware of the political atmosphere there; one can question that, with knowing all that she does, how intelligent is it to make such a public announcement? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/opinion/chinas-brutal-one-child-policy.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ll-leads-to-forced-abortions-and-always-will/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25772401 http://www.unric.org/en/human-trafficking/27450-illegal-adoption Recently however, the PRC government has vowed to relax the OCP, allowing for the average couple (in addition to the ethnic minority, rural and or product of single child marriages) to have a second child. Whether this actually is carried out is too soon to be known, but if allowed, would go a long way to ease social tensions that the OCP had caused. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/world/asia/china-to-loosen-its-one-child-policy.html
That's both true and not true; look at what happened to Zhang Yimou (famed film director and oscar nominee) despite his paying $1.2 Million USD in penalties to the state; he's being vilified in the Chinese blogs as exactly the type of rich, 'the rules don't apply to me' dirt bag that Chinese society hates. Even as he can afford it and the amount of money to him is almost nothing; by doing so (paying such a hefty fine) he loses tremendously in terms of public opinion. It may seem counterintuitive, but the truth is, the larger the amount he pays, the more it just goes to illustrate the excessive depths of his personal wealth, and the effect is, the more he becomes hated. Thus, Zhang recently issued a public apology for having broken the law, but in reality, he was regretful for having incurred the ire of a paying public; he's afraid they'll boycott his future films. http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/30/world/asia/filmmaker-one-child-policy/
