Shanghai authorities have issued 12 criteria for local couples who want to have a second child. According to a regulation published yesterday on the Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission's Web site, couples who have a non-agricultural permanent residence need to meet one of 9 criteria, while those with an agricultural identity registration need to meet one of 12.

The nine criteria for non-agricultural families are: 1) Both spouses are only children. 2) The couple's first child is disabled due to non-hereditary reasons and he/she cannot grow up to be an adult with the ability to work. 3) One spouse is disabled due to non-hereditary reasons and cannot take care of him/herself. 4) One spouse is a disabled serviceman. 5) One spouse is a fisherman who has been working for five consecutive years or more at sea. 6) One spouse has no child before marriage while the other has one or two from a previous marriage. 7) Each of the spouses has one child from previous marriages and both spouses are only children. 8) Each of the spouses has one child from previous marriages and one of the two children is disabled due to non-hereditary reasons and is unable to work. 9) The couple does not have children from previous marriages and the diagnosed-infertile wife is pregnant after adopting a child.

Three more criteria apply to agricultural permanent residency couples. They are: 1) One of the spouses has a local agricultural identity registration and is an only child. 2) The wife has a local agricultural identity registration; she has no brothers and each of her sisters has only one child; the husband marries into the wife's family and takes care of the wife's parents. 3) Each spouse has a child from a previous marriage; one of them has a local agricultural identity registration or is an only child.

Residents can call the hot-line at 12356, or call their local family planning offices for more details.

Xinhua News Agency reported on July 22 that Shanghai had launched a campaign to encourage only-child couples to have their second child, due to concerns over a rapidly aging population and future labor shortages.

The city cancelled a four-year interval between the first and second births in 2004. Legal births of second children rose from 2,910 in 2005 to 3,934 in 2007, according to the Shanghai Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission.

(China.org.cn by Li Shen, July 28, 2009)