A man in Shaoguan, Guangdong province, wanted a local court to announce his son who is alive to be dead because he wanted to have another child, South China Metropolis Daily reported on Wednesday.

The man, surnamed Hou, went to a district court recently and asked the court to announce that his son had died as his son had been missing for four years.

After an investigation, the court found Hou’s son was alive and living with Hou’s ex-wife in Foshan, another city in Guangdong province.

Hou confessed that he remarried and wanted to have a baby with his new wife.

According to the family planning policy, Hou is prohibited from having a second child.