Families free of the One-child Policy in Zhejiang Province would be able to give birth to a second baby without waiting four years—the current interval ratified by the Zhejiang Population and Birth Planning Regulation in 2002.

The province proposed an amended regulation to the local People's Congress on September 25 that would cancel birth-interval control and reduces fines for non-marital births.

The updated law aims to keep the local population well proportioned in the following decades when the province is forecasted to become crowded with migrants and aging residents, said Zhang Wenbiao, director of the Zhejiang Population and Birth Planning Committee.

The regulation will allow for an estimated 177,000 more second births by 2010, but the figure won't affect the province's total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.5 (children born/woman), Zhejiang News, a local website, reported on September 25. The highest allowable TFR in China is currently set at 1.8.

Meanwhile, the province will stop imposing a fine on non-marital births from couples that plan to wed within six months. The fine, at present one to two times the average household income, will also be reduced by half. Early second fertilities and non-marital births have accounted for 30 percent of local births in Zhejiang Province, Oriental Morning Post reported on September 26.

China adopted the One-child Policy in 1982, relevant to all domestic families except ethic minorities, families with a disabled first child, and couples consisting of two only children.

(China.org.cn by Wu Jin September 26, 2007)