'Secret' children could cost State workers their jobs

State workers could face the sack if they have two or more children.

A draft of revised regional family planning regulations in Shaanxi province says workers will be fired if they are found to have more children than allowed or refuse to pay a fine for breaking the policy.

Government officials, court workers and those in the army and some other organizations will also be laid off, if they are found to be cheating.

Those involved in cases of family planning policy violation will also be fired, the Xi'an Evening News reported on Thursday.

Last year, most provincial regions relaxed family planning to allow couples to have a second child if one parent is an only child. An intermediate people's court in Beijing has ruled there is no clause in city regulations allowing employers to lay off staff violating family planning policy.

In Shaanxi, revised family planning regulations were handed to the provincial congress for discussion on Wednesday.

The draft states that employees of State-owned companies or organizations will be punished if they break family planning rules.

Unlicensed assisted reproductive technology clinics will have earnings confiscated together with a fine of up to three times the illegal earnings, or fined between 50,000 and 100,000 yuan ($8,000-16,000) if they do not show a profit.

Governments above county level are asked to set up information sharing systems for family planning issues. Civil affairs and public security departments should regularly release details of newly registered marriages, additional population and mobile population.

Returned overseas Chinese are allowed to have two children, according to the draft and medical institutions are banned from testing the gender of unborn babies.

Parents with only one child can collect a monthly subsidy of at least 30 yuan, the draft said.