Fired professor rejects claim he broke nation's one-child rule

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A university professor in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, has lodged an appeal with local authorities and is considering legal action after he was fired on the grounds that he had violated the national family planning policy.

Cai Zhiqi and his lawyer went to the Guangdong provincial human resources authority on Tuesday to submit an appeal, asking the South China University of Technology to reinstate him.

He had worked as a chemistry professor at the university since 2009, but was fired in November after the university's family planning office discovered he had two children.

In December, he lodged an appeal directly to the university, but his request to be reinstated was rejected, causing him to appeal to a higher authority on Tuesday.

In response, the university wrote a letter confirming that he had been fired and explaining the reasons. The letter, dated Jan 16, said Cai had violated the nation's family planning policy and had been sacked in accordance with Guandong’s family planning regulations.

Cai claims the university's position conflicts with existing regulations to give those who study abroad a second child.

Cai's first child was born in the United States in 2007 when he was working overseas and the other was born in Tianjin in 2010. The first child is a US citizen and the second is registered to live on the mainland.

He cites a regulation from the National Population and Family Planning Commission in 2001 that allows people from the Chinese mainland who are studying overseas to have a second child if they lived abroad for more than a year.

The university refused to comment on Cai's appeal on Tuesday. Since being sacked by the university, Cai has been working part-time for a friend's chemical company.

Cai's wife, who began studying for a doctoral degree at the university in September 2017, was asked by the university's family planning office to give up her studies. The office said a family with two children would affect the university's annual performance in family planning assessment by the local government authority.

But she claims the university gave her a verbal promise that she would be allowed to continue her studies, as the decision to fire Cai had already brought significant losses to the family.

Questions:

1. The fired professor worked at which university?

2. Why was he fired?

3. His first child was born in which country?

Answers:

1. South China University of Technology.

2. He had violated the nation's family planning policy

3. The United States.

About the broadcaster:

Anne Ruisi is an editor at China Daily online with more than 30 years of experience as a newspaper editor and reporter. She has worked at newspapers in the U.S., including The Birmingham News in Alabama and City Newspaper of Rochester, N.Y.