China’s family planning policies have been criticised after a couple’s bank account was frozen over unpaid fines imposed for having a third child, despite the country’s falling fertility rates.
The couple, from China’s eastern province of Shandong, failed to meet the deadline to pay the “social maintenance fee” of 64,626 yuan (US$9,500) to the local authority, the local court said on Sunday, and were denied access to the 22,987 yuan in their account as a result.
Shandong was reported to have the most newborns nationally in 2017, according to state news agency Xinhua, but a recent report by the21st Century Business Herald suggested the birth rate in the province may have dropped sharply in 2018, with many cities reporting declining figures.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics recorded a drop in the number of new births in 2018 to 15.23 million, from 17.23 million in 2017.