Hong Kong may ban Chinese from giving birth in its public hospitals
In this photo dated January 19, 2009, a pregnant woman walks down the street of the financial district in Singapore.
Incoming Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying announced today that he plans to ban pregnant mainlanders from giving birth in Hong Kong's public hospitals, the Associated Foreign Press reported.
Chinese women give birth in Hong Kong, a former British colony of seven million people, to avoid their own country's strict one-child policy, the AFP said.
Under a provision in Hong Kong's mini-constitution, any Chinese born in Hong Kong gains automatic citizenship. But Leung announced today that he plans to end this automatic citizenship, Reuters reported.
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Leung's announcement was cheered on by locals. Mainlanders accounted for nearly half of Hong Kong's 88,000 births in 2010, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Henry Yeung, president of the Hong Kong Doctors' Union, said that Leung's proposed limits would solve overcrowding problems in maternity wards.
"This move will return maternity beds to local mothers," Yeung told Reuters.