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Zhang Huayong, who went missing 32 years ago, reunited with his parents in Jianyang, Southwest China's Sichuan province, ending two parties' years of search but exposing a series of local scandals of officials forcibly taking away newborn babies from their biological parents and sending them to strangers, 163.com reported on Wednesday.

Photo taken on 2014 shows Xie Xianmei on the way to meet her parents. [Photo/newssc.org]

Zhang, the second son in his family, was born in Jianyang on May 31, 1983. His birth violated the family planning policy carried out in the late 1970s. Though his father, Zhang Mingfa, turned over social maintenance fee stipulated by law to local authorities, Zhang was still taken away at six-month-old.

Social maintenance fee, according to a regulation issued by State Council on Aug 2, 2002, was defined as money levied mandatorily for citizens who give birth to more than one child without permission.

It is officially explained to be used to readjust utilization of natural resources and protect environment, as well as to compensate the governmental fund invested into public social affairs. In one word, to compensate social resources consumed by additional children.

According to the report from 163.com, Zhang Mingfa, the father, recalled the event that happened on Nov 13, 1983, when more than 50 people, including the then-Party secretary of Laojunjing village and the then-director of family planning office of Laojunjing village, came to his house and robbed him of his son.

Like other officially "abducted" babies, Zhang Mingfa's son was sent away. After constant search, he was reportedly provided a piece of wrong information about the baby's whereabouts by the county government and has never seen his son since then.

The report said that since around 1980, many regions in Sichuan province have taken "one couple raising one child" as the priority of the family planning work.

Jianyang, in particular, reportedly conjured up a customized policy of its own, taking away second or third babies from their parents and giving them to strange couples who didn't have a child.

Apart from Zhang Yonghua's family, there are dozens of households in different villages under Jianyang jurisdiction who lost their babies in the similar way around 1983, 163.com reported.

What happened in Jianyang is not a one-off.

Eight years later, same tragedy occurred to Xie Xianmei, a native of Dazhou, about 400 km northwest of Jianyang, who has known herself an additional family member since childhood, China Youth Daily reported.

In May 12, 1991, the decision on strictly controlling the growth of population issued by China's cabinet took effect, which made the birth control an important indicator of the achievements in officials' career.

Xie was born just about one month after the implementation of the decision on June 20, 1991. She was reportedly "confiscated" by local family planning officials at the age of about four-month, because her parents could not afford 8,500 yuan ($1,361) social maintenance fee, a sky-high price for a villager charged randomly by the authority.

Until her foster father, a single man in his 30s, gave more than 200 yuan social maintenance fee to the local family planning office in that winter did Xie have a new family, China Youth Daily reported.

If it were not for Xie's resolution to seek her parents and the help of media, she would not know her life story or meet her biological parents in 2014. Her parents did not get any information about their daughter since she was taken away.

In Dazhou, the act of giving additional babies confiscated from their biological family to a single or childless couple was called "adjustment", which was seen as a local common practice in 1991, China Youth Daily reported.

Although a traditional practice at that time, the behavior is unimaginable and unforgivable now.

People.com.cn criticized the act as tyrannical, which damages the image of the government.

It is a deviation of policy that an official uses his rationing power to abduct an outnumbered baby, people.com.cn reported.

When it comes to the reasons behind officials' zeal for such brutal act, political performance and social maintenance fee levy play an important role, the report said.

Many regions reportedly have implemented "one-vote negation system" in family planning work for quite some time in the past. The main officials, responsible officials and persons in charge in a region shall not be awarded or promoted if a resident in the jurisdiction violates the family planning law.

Under such pressure, some officials resort to extreme methods, including robbing babies, to meet evaluation standards, people.com.cn reported.

Besides, some officials regard social maintenance fee as a way of generating government fiscal revenue.

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.

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