Translated from Beijing News Daily

Local officials enforcing family-planning polices came to a young couple in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, to collect a 70,000-yuan ($11,110) “social support fee” as a fine because the couple had given birth to their second baby before getting approval from the local authorities.

According to law, the couple is allowed to have a second baby because both parents were single children themselves. But they should have applied for the authorities’ approval before having the second baby.

Although this couple broke the rules, the social support fee, which is used to deter unqualified couples from having more babies than allowed, should not be levied in this case.

What makes the case disturbing is the officials had enough time during the woman’s pregnancy to remind the couple to apply for the necessary approval. Now it seems the officials waited till the last moment to turn up just to collect the fees.

This kind of policy enforcement, which distorts the initial purpose of the national policy and damages the authorities’ credit, must not take place again.