According to a Chinese newspaper, Shanghai’s city government is readying laws that would criminalize the renting of housing space to unmarried couples, including same-sex partners.

365Gay.com reported last week that, according to The Beijing News, the Chinese city has determined that rentals should be made available only to families and singles.

The article at 365Gay.com noted that there were no specifics given in the Beijing News story as to whether single GLBT people would also be affected by the housing law.

According to reports, the city government of Shanghai intends to stop cohabitation outside of marriage. However, reports also suggested that besides this moral values reason, there may be other, more pragmatic aims at work, such as thinning out the city’s population density.

One indication that there may be non-morality rationales at work is a provision in the new law that stipulates that each tenant must have at least five square meters of living space, and that individual rooms may not be further subdivided.

Pointing out that Shanghai is an economic center, the report also said that the city’s population has surged in the past few years due to increased production of market items bound for the West. Workers, and students, typically share rooms, sleeping in bunk beds.

Chinese law does not officially persecute GLBT people, but Chinese police are said to harass actual and perceived GLBT people, and to shut down GLBT businesses; 365Gay.com also pointed out that the Chinese government launched a "clean up" of GLBT web content last year, including a site that provided information on HIV / AIDS and safer sex practices.

The story referenced the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) as projecting infection rates in China of up to 10 million cases by 2010 if the Chinese government does not institute, or at least allow, preventative action.