Yang Zhizhu Filed Lawsuit against the Haidian Family Planning Committee

• Author: China Law Digest compiled news

On December 21, 2009, Yang Zhizhu, Assistant Professor of the Beijing Youth Politics College, gave birth to a second child, and was thereby subject to academic probation and required to pay 240,642 RMB as social maintenance fee. Yang refused to pay the fee and was subsequently dismissed by the College. In September 2010, Beijing City Haidian District Family Planning Committee issued a Social Maintenance Fee Collection Order to Yang and his wife, charging them of “giving birth to a second child illegally” and requiring them to pay a social maintenance fee of 240,642 RMB, calculated as 9 times 26,738 RMB, the per capita disposable income of urban residents in Beijing in 2009.

At the end of 2010, Yang filed lawsuit against the Haidian District Family Planning Committee, alleging firstly that the law only “promoted” but not “mandated” a couple to give birth to only one child, and secondly, that...