Zhang Yimou was fined over $1.2 million for breaking China's strict family planning rules. Zhang Yimou, the director of the films "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" was fined after it was learned he had three children, one more than is allowed for his situation.

According to authorities, Chinese Director Zhang Yimou is being fined $1.2 million for violating China's strict rules by secretly having three kids. Zhang admitted in December that he fathered three children with his wife, the actress Chen Ting. The fines are based in part on couple's annual incomes. The Binhu district government said Yimou and Ting made about $580,000 in the three years, 2000, 2003 and 2005, when their children were born.

Before Zhang's confession, local media was speculating he might have fathered as many as seven children. This brought on major blowback on Chinese social media, who saw the confession as an example of the rich and well-connected getting away with ignoring the rule of law.

In an online statement, the district government Wuxi, China, said investigators concluded that Zhang and his wife, Chen Ting, had the children without approval and before they got married in 2011. The district government said it adopted more severe standards on the fines because Zhang and Chen flagrantly violated the limits.

Zhang Yimou has 30 days to pay the fine. China limits most urban couples to one child. Rural families can have two children if the first-born is a girl. Zhang has a daughter with his first wife and therefore could only have one child legally. Zhang and Ting were not married when they had their first child and they did not have a birth permit, which violated China's rules.

In November, China's Communist Party announced that the country would relax the one-child policy. China would allow families to have two children if one parent is an only child. The announcement was made too late to help Zhang.

Reports that Zhang had violated the country's one-child rule started to circulate in May. Binhu authorities started the probe in July because Chen is a registered resident of the district even though she lives in Beijing. Zhang issued an apology for the "negative social impact" he caused and said he would cooperate with investigators.

In a statement, Zhang's studio confirmed that Zhang fathered two sons and one daughter with Chen, but denied reports that Zhang allegedly fathered Children with other women.