East China's Zhejiang Province will expose celebrities and rich people who violate the family planning policy by having multiple babies in order to curb the trend, an official said?on Wednesday.

"The public is very much aware that some celebrities simply pay money to have two or more children. This kind of behavior must be stopped," said Zhang Wenbiao, head of the provincial family planning commission, at a press conference.

As public figures, these people should be an example of compliance with the law, instead of circumventing the one-child family policy by simply paying fines, Zhang said.

Zhang added that the province would expose a few such cases in the near future.

In addition, Zhejiang has greatly raised the fines imposed on violators of the one-child policy. In some cases, the fine could be as high as over one million yuan (US$130,000), according to Zhang's deputy Song Xianneng.

China's one-child family policy was enacted in the 1970s to curb a huge population explosion. In 2002 the law was amended to allow ethnic minorities to have more than one child and peasants to have a second child if their first is a girl. The changes were never intended to allow city residents to have multiple babies.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2007)