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International

Beijing

Census seeks kids: The once-a-decade census is under way in the world’s largest country this week, and this time Chinese authorities are trying to encourage people to be honest about how many children they have. Families that have more than the legally permissible one child often lie to census takers rather than pay the hefty fine—around $28,000—to register an extra child. This year the government has promised to reduce the fine for families that come clean. Unregistered children, who likely number in the millions, cannot attend school. “We want to provide an education to these kids,” said census official Duan Chengrong, “but in many cases we don’t know how many children there are.”

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