Regulation in Shenzhen outlaws extra child born overseas

Parents who bring an additional child born abroad to the Chinese mainland will have to pay a fee after a family planning regulation was passed in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province.

Under the regulation, which takes effect on Jan. 1 2013, parents registered in the city, or one in the city and the other in another part of the mainland, will have to pay a "social compensation fee" for having the additional child born overseas. This is if the child is registered later in the city or raised on the mainland for more than 18 months within two years of arriving.

The fee will be up to 219,000 yuan (35,000 U.S. dollars) for each unapproved child.

Shenzhen is located near China's special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, where the country's family planning policy is not applicable.

To escape the policy, many parents choose to give birth of additional babies in Hong Kong and Macao.

"Wherever the unapproved child is born, in Hong Kong, the U.S. or Canada, it is illegal," said Sun Meihua, deputy director with Shenzhen's health, population and family planning committee.

The regulation, which was passed on Oct. 30 at the 18th session of the Standing Committee of Shenzhen People's Congress, also forbids parents having triplets or more births with assisted reproductive technology.