Experts stress consistency of family-planning policy

Chinese legal experts have called for more consistency among rules issued by different authorities regarding the country's family-planning policy.

China's top legislature in December last year passed a resolution to allow more couples to have two children.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) earlier this year issued a circular on rules regarding implementation of the adjusted policy, stipulating that couples who plan to have another child after their first one will be no longer eligible to the country's allowances for one-child families.

The allowances they have already received need not be returned, the circular said.

Under current family-planning policy, a couple with one child can receive an annual allowance of 60 yuan (9.78 U.S. dollars) until the child reaches 14 years old.

However, a local ordinance in central China's Henan Province, which was revised by the province's local legislature, said couples should refund the money if they are having a second child.

The NHFPC circular is not an enforceable requirement superior to local legislatures' decisions, said law professor Yang Xiaojun with the Chinese Academy of Governance.

"That is to say, the Henan ordinance is not illegal," Yang added.

However, Yang noted that the requirement for allowance refunds is not reasonable enough, as it runs counter to a general legal principle against ex post facto laws, or laws that are retroactively binding for prior acts.

Zhan Zhongle, a law professor at Peking University, agreed.

Authorities should take account of the consistency and rationality when formulating regulations or rules. It is evident that, in terms of the allowance issue, the NHFPC document is in line with the juristic logic and bears a more human touch, Zhan said.

The experts also called for detailed rules from more authoritative agencies to avoid similar contradictions regarding the revised policy.