THE PUBLIC HEALTH BUREAU of Chengwu county, Shandong province, fined a migrant worker couple 64,626 yuan ($9,570), in the form of the so-called social maintenance fee, for breaking the provincial rules made according to the Population and Family Planning Law. The local court then seized all of the couple's savings, 22,958 yuan, last month, after they failed to hand the fine to the bureau before the 30-day deadline expired. China Daily reporter Li Yang comments:

True, the law and the provincial regulation - which are based on the Constitution, in which family planning is still recognized as a national policy to adjust the population's growth to the needs of social and economic development plans－are legally binding, and all couples are obliged to carry out the policy, which is also entrenched as a general principle in the Marriage Law.

But neither the bureau nor the court should quote them as an excuse for their compulsory execution of the administrative fine without considering the consequences of their ruling: The fine is heavy enough to bankrupt the couple, who apparently lead a hand-to-mouth existence while raising three children.

It seems the local authorities have not informed the couple that according to the Administrative Compulsory Law, for those who have difficulty paying a fine before the deadline, the authorities can allow them to pay it in stages, or that they have the right to apply for an administrative review of their case. The court has been too hasty in seizing the couple's limited savings before their legal rights and interests have been guaranteed. The couple have every right to apply for a review or start litigation proceedings before they lose all their money.

The incident comes at a time when the central government has just implemented the largest round of tax cuts last month to ease the burden of families raising children－the more children they have, the more tax relief they can apply for－in a bid to encourage couples to have more children, since the number of new births has dropped continuously in the two years even after the implementation of the revised family planning policy in 2016 that allows all couples to have two children.

The sessions of China's top legislature and political advisory body next month in Beijing provide an opportunity to revise the outdated clauses of the family planning law, which are apparently poles apart from the nation's needs and policies, but a protective talisman for some dogmatic rule-of-law officials.