Film director fined more than RM4m for having three kids

Popular film director, Zhang Yimou was fined more than RM4m for violating China's one-child policy, reports BBC News.

The director who was said to have three children, has 30 days to pay 7.5m yuan (RM4.06 million), according to state media.

Zhang is known for directing the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony in 2008 apologised for violating the strict policy which was introduced in the 1970s to curb population growth.

The policy until recently limited most urban couples to a single child and rural families were allowed to have two children if their first-born was a girl.

China last year however said it would relax the policy where families will be allowed two children if one parent is an only child.

According to BBC in its report said Xinhua news agency citing the district's official microblog account, the family planning bureau in Binhu district, Wuxi city, Jiangsu province sent Mr Zhang a letter collecting the "social maintenance fee".

Binhu government said that the fine was calculated based on the income of Mr Zhang and his wife, Chen Ting, when their two sons and daughter were born, where the couple was said to have made $580,000 in 2000, 2003 and 2005.

Zhang, 61, directed some of China's most successful films, including Hero, the House of Flying Daggers and the Flowers of War.