Guangdong to slap fines on 2nd-child birth tourists to HK

In signs that the campaign to curb the influx of Chinese mainlanders seeking to give birth in Hong Kong is intensifying, officials have warned that those who take advantage of the policy discrepancies and breach the one-child policy will be fined.

The statement by Zhang Feng, director of the family planning department of Guangdong Province, comes as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region witnesses a growing number of mainland mothers flocking to the region to give birth in order to obtain local residency. Local politicians in Hong Kong have called for legal amendments to end the tide for fear that unregulated arrivals could dry up limited public resources.

Zhang said that mothers from the mainland who go to Hong Kong to give birth to a second child will be fined for violating the family planning policy, and members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with government organs who do so will be expelled from both the Party and removed from their position.

"Many mainlanders give birth in Hong Kong to get permanent residency, and some make the decision to have a second child. But according to the population and family planning regulation in Guangdong Province, urban residents are only allowed to have one child, regardless of where they give birth," Zhang said.

Zhang's remark came after Guangdong governor Zhu Xiaodan promised a solution to tackle the influx of mainland women giving birth in Hong Kong.

In 2010, mainland women accounted for one-third of the 88,584 newborns in Hong Kong, up from 620 in 2001, according to official data. Last year, about 43,000 mainland women gave birth in Hong Kong.

The surge in mainland mothers going to Hong Kong to deliver their babies has prompted growing resentment against mainlanders in the SAR. These sentiments came to a head recently after the Hong Kong-based Apple Daily carried a full page advertisement last week, demanding the local government stop mainland pregnant women from entering the city.

Titled "Hongkongers have had enough!" the ad featured a huge locust occupying the tip of Lion Rock against the backdrop of Victoria Harbor symbolizing mainlanders' use of the city's resources.

Amid the mounting public backlash, some "pan-democrats" in Hong Kong have proposed amending the Basic Law to stop mainland mothers from entering.

The Liberal Party Thursday proposed that the government kick the residency issue back to the courts by not automatically giving babies of non-local parents permanent residency, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.