Stones began to fly
A witness in the nearby town of Dunbu said two dozen officials dressed in uniforms and carrying electric cattle prods barged into a small store near his house Thursday evening and demanded the owner pay an overdue fine or his inventory would be carried off. Neighbors quickly gathered around, he said, and scores of police officers were called in to back up the family planning officials. By the end of the evening, several thousand townspeople and hundreds of police were facing off near local government offices, he said, and the stones began to fly.

The witness said he saw three bloodied protesters, including a primary school student, before the melee subsided and authorities imposed an overnight curfew. Similar outbreaks of violence were reported in the towns of Yongan, Dadong and Shabo, where offices were reported ransacked and police cars burned. Zhang Ming, a local official in Shabo, was among those who witnesses said were injured by the flying stones.

The witnesses said local authorities and police seemed surprised by the vehemence of the townspeople's reaction. A local television report referred to those who participated in the violence as "rebels."

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"The police looked like they were afraid," one witness said of the clashes in his neighborhood.

The Bobai County government issued a statement saying government property was destroyed by the protesters and blaming the outburst on excessive enforcement tactics and attempts by officials to overcharge families with more than one child. By Tuesday, the area was calm except for a continued police presence in the most restive towns and the frequent passage of Public Security Bureau vehicles with sirens blipping.

$375 fine for second offspring
The way the one-child policy has been interpreted in this region of fertile rice paddies and pineapple fields, families whose first child is a daughter can try again for a son but have to pay a $375 fine for their second offspring, parents said. Those who give birth to third and fourth children have to pay progressively higher fines, residents said.

But, they added, Bobai authorities traditionally have been lenient about collecting the money, realizing that farmers often face a cash shortage between crops. As a result, many Bobai area families, particularly in tradition-bound farming villages along dirt lanes cutting between paddies, have three or more children. For many of them, the new determination to enforce the rules meant financial stress, and for others financial impossibility.

Chen Hua, 32, a mother of two, said she and her husband were suddenly faced with demands for swift payment of their fine. After pleading for a delay, they coughed up the money just before the May 1 Labor Day holiday. Part of the money came from Chen's earnings as a taxi driver, a trade she plies in the nearby city of Yulin for $90 a month while her husband tends the family farm.

Chen said they had a daughter, now 8, but wanted a son as well. He was born six years ago, making them liable for the $375 fine that they paid three weeks ago.

"It's worth it," she said. "I finally got a son. In our area, if you don't have a son, you haven't made it. In the countryside, if we don't have a son, who will take care of us when we are old?"