China's health authority cracks down on illegal sale of birth certificates

China's National Health Commission (NHC) on Friday said it had sent inspection teams to supervise and guide local health authorities in a crackdown on the criminal activity of selling birth certificates.

Birth certificates are statutory medical certificates uniformly produced by the NHC, and are issued by licensed medical and health care institutions, according to the law on maternal and infant health care.

The NHC pledged efforts to strictly crack down on the act of fabricating birth certificates, and to work with public security organs to hold medical workers involved in such act accountable.

Inspection teams have been dispatched to Hubei, Guangdong and Guangxi, according to the NHC, adding that it will launch a special inspection campaign across the country to standardize the management of birth certificates.