Men who have newborn babies should have paid paternity leave guaranteed by law, said Huang Xihua, a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy from Guangdong province, Yangcheng Evening News reported on March 3.

She suggests new dads have the same parental rights as mothers with the same pay rate. She also suggests adding men's parental leave into the country's population and family planning law as well as involving it in birth insurance.

Currently, paid paternity leave for Chinese men varies from 3 to 30 days according to different places and the national law does not have clear case.

Huang argues the current policy creates discrimination?against women in work. "The companies are more likely to employ men rather than women because they have to pay women who give birth for over three months," Huang said.

Qiu Mei, also an NPC deputy, supports the motion, saying that it will benefit women and children. But NPC deputy Li Shuming argues there is no need to set the paid parental leave for men at legislative level. The companies' actual situation should be considered too.