By Eva Cheng

Chinese women in the key industrial city of Wuhan, Hubei province, are forced to pay heavy fines and write "self-criticism" if found to have lost their virginity before marriage, according to a China News Digest dispatch on May 15. A medical examination is required in order to obtain state approval to marry.

The fine ranges between 200 and 2000 yuan. The monthly wage of an average worker is a few hundred yuan.

The approval -- in the form of a "marriage certificate" -- is part of the requirement under China's one-child policy, introduced in the early 1970s.

Zhang Xianwu, an official at the Marriage Department of Wuhan's Bureau of Civil Affairs, was quoted as saying that the stiff fine was necessary to stamp out "immoral trends".

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