China: Database bid to curb bigamy

CHINESE officials in Beijing and Shanghai will put marriage databases online this year to prevent extramarital affairs and bigamy.

China's opening economy over the past few decades has led to a high degree of mobility among cities and regions, creating what Beijing-based lawyer Chen Wei described as a "strangers' society" in an interview with the China Daily newspaper yesterday about the marriage database plan.

The civil affairs ministry has said 2.47 million couples split in 2009, up almost 9 per cent from the year before.