Shenzhen plans charge on second children born in Hong Kong

Shenzhen plans to plug a loophole in its family planning regulations and charge those who give birth to a second child in Hong Kong or overseas more than 200,000 yuan (HK$246,000), state media reported yesterday.

Xinhua said the standing committee of the city's people's congress had decided recently that social maintenance fees - more commonly known as extra-child penalties - would be imposed on residents of the city who violated the mainland's family planning policy.

Many Shenzhen residents had been choosing to deliver their second child in Hong Kong or Macau, hoping to evade the penalty, the report said.

The original regulations did not specify if second children born overseas were subject to penalties, and many people had tried to take advantage of the grey area.

The report said the new policy, which will come into effect on January 1, would apply to couples where one or both partners was resident in Shenzhen.

They would be required to pay the penalty when registering their child's permanent residency in Shenzhen or if the child had lived in Shenzhen for more than 18 months in the past two years.