HONG KONG – The director of a hospital in China’s central Hubei province is under investigation for selling birth certificates, with the hospital’s obstetrics and gynaecology department forced to suspend operations, state media reported on Tuesday.

The case fuelled a flurry of online comments by Chinese netizens who said these birth certificates were most likely used to register abducted children and prevent them from being found, the Global Times reported.

Other netizens said the certificates may provide an option for registering surrogate children as surrogacy is illegal in China.

The director earned more than 60,000 yuan (S$11,300) for each certificate, the Global Times said.

Reuters was not able to immediately identify the director.

The hospital’s official website was under maintenance and no contact number was listed on its official WeChat account.

The Health Commission of Xiangyang, a prefecture-level city in north-western Hubei, sent a special team to Jianqiao Hospital on Monday after being alerted to the case. Further updates will be provided based on the results of a full investigation, it said.

Birth certificates are required in China for obtaining household registration and are necessary for vaccinations, medical insurance enrolment and application for a social security card.

The case comes as birth rates have fallen in China to their lowest since records began in 1949, at just 9.56 million births in 2022. REUTERS