Nanjing City Government Specifies Circumstances for Obtaining Permission to Have Second Child

According to a report in the February 3 People’s Daily, the Nanjing city government issued a confidential document recently that adds to the circumstances under which parents may apply for government approval to have a second child. The seven situations outlined in the document seem to relax previously more stringent family planning rules, and generally follow the legal and policy approach of the national-level Population and Family Planning Law of 2001. The Jiangsu provincial government has already approved the Nanjing document. At the provincial level, Chapter 3 of the Jiangsu Provincial Population and Family Planning Regulation provides for other situations in which parents may apply to have a second child. These laws and rules may be the result of increased public pressure for exceptions, albeit within confines of a national policy of continuing restrictions on births.