National database will be further improved to prevent bigamy

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has said increased measures will be taken to improve the national marriage database, with the aim of preventing bigamy and marital fraud, China Youth Daily reported on Friday.

China established the national database in 2012 to handle marriage registration across 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the Chinese mainland.

In the latest efforts in 2018, central government enabled the sharing of information on marriages registered both in China and abroad, to improve the accuracy verifying people's marital statuses and prevent bigamy.

"We've been promoting the digital construction of marriage status information for a long time," said the head of the ministry's social affair bureau. "But there're also some problems." he added.

According to him, the ministry will speed up the exchange of marriage registration information with courts and relevant agencies, in order to keep the database updated and complete marriage records that haven't been included in the network.

The civil affairs authorities will enforce the memorandum of cooperation jointly signed by central authorities to punish those with dishonest behaviors in marriage registration.

Increased professional training will be given to staff working in marriage registration agencies to screen those who have lied in marriage registration.