How officials 'stole' children from parents

Wu Jinmin feeds her son, the fourth child, noodles in Xiaba village, Xingyi, Southwest China's Guizhou province on May 1, 2014. Her husband, Wang Guangrong, committed suicide on March 3, reportedly because of not being able to afford social maintenance fee. [Photo/CFP]

The fee collected by the village government or community office goes to the pocket of county authorities, who make the levy decision, another report from people.com.cn said.

According the regulation, social maintenance fee is an administrative charge, which shall be turned over to the State treasury, and no one may withhold, misappropriate or embezzle it.

"If the county authorities take the charge of the money, the higher government may have no idea about it," the report said.

Despite laws and regulations, some regional family planning authorities risk danger for profits.

According to Caixin Century, one of China's leading economics and finance publications, family planning officials in Shaoyang, Central China's Hunan province, were accused of infant trafficking between 2002 and 2005, by abusing family planning policy, which sparked outcry in China and abroad.

It is reported that nearly 20 infants were sold to welfare centers for at least 1,000 yuan ($155) each and then labeled as orphans ready for adoption. Some of them were taken overseas by foreign adoptive parents, who offered $3,000 "sponsorship" for each.

Several welfare centers in Hengyang, which neighbors Shaoyang, reportedly "bought" 810 infants in total in this way since 2003, Caixin Century cited a Hunan media outlet reported.

After the case was exposed, Shaoyang city government launched a probe and handed out punishments to 12 civil servants in 2011, explaining they were found in serious violation of Party discipline or administrative rules.