Updated

Chinese parents who bore children outside the country's one-child policy have protested outside the family planning commission in a bid to have their fines canceled.

Starting this year, all Chinese couples are allowed to have two children. For decades, China's family planning policy limited most urban couples to one child, and couples who broke the policy were ordered to pay a social compensation fee. To pressure them into paying, some local authorities refused to register the child if they parents didn't pay up.

About 20 people stood in a line outside the gates of the national family planning offices on Tuesday saying they wanted their fines canceled.

Protester Wan Changru said all children should be treated equally, "no matter whether they were born before or after the policy change."