China links citizen's domestic and overseas marriage registration information

BEIJING - The central government has enabled information sharing of marriages registered both in China and abroad in its latest effort to improve the accuracy of verifying citizen's marital status and effectively prevent bigamy.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will push information of marriages registered at China's embassies and consulates in other countries to the national database for marriage registration run by the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA), the MCA said in a statement.

Both the MCA, which is in charge of domestic marriage registration, and Chinese embassies and consulates can now access the national database to verify the current marital status of applicants registering a marriage.