Farmer drinks poison after being fined for excess children

A farmer who was unable to pay the fines for excess children he had with his wife, in violation of the family planning policy, drank pesticide to kill himself before a village head in Gongbao village, Handan, Hebei Province.

The 45-year-old man, Ai Guangdong, and his wife, Xie Yufeng, have a total of five kids, and the youngest is a 4-year-old son. After they had their second daughter in 2003, village officials asked them to pay a fine of 7,000 yuan ($1,150), according to a report on the news portal people.com.cn on Saturday.

However, the family was so poor that village officials only took hundreds of yuan for that birth, but after they had a third child, village officials said that they had to pay a total of 60,000 yuan, said Xie.

On Tuesday, the village Party chief, Ai Liankun, and village head, Hao Guangjun, led other three officials to visit the family to collect fines, and they ended up taking away more than 3.5 tons of corn, which represented the entire savings of the family.

On Wednesday, Ai Guangdong then visited the village Party chief Ai Liankun to argue with him about the fines, and finally, Ai Guangdong drank the pesticide at Ai Liankun's home.

Ai Guangdong was then sent to a local township hospital where he was pronounced dead. After the death, Ai Liankun and his family disappeared.

China's regulations state that the fines should be collected when the one-child family planning policy is breached, however a Hebei Province regulation states that in poor mountainous regions, families can have a second child if the first is a girl.

Ai's family were eligible for this policy, meaning they didn't have to pay the fine in 2003, people.com.cn reported, also reporting that when village officials took money they did not provide receipts, so there were no records of how much the family had paid or what was done with the fines.

On Thursday, Cao Jinchao, chairman of the People's Congress of Liangerzhuang township, said to the family that the township government would arrange for the minimum living support for the four children of Ai, and give 10,000 yuan as aid and 5,000 yuan for a funeral fee.

However, the family did not agree with the conditions and the case has reached a stalemate.

Investigations into the death are still underway.