"I'm afraid one of the dogs might be taken away," she said. The new rule, which takes effect Sunday, means either finding a new home for one of her pets, or registering one with her parents. Shanghai's new pet ownership rules also slash steep fees for dog registration — in hopes of bringing more undocumented dogs onto the books — and require those walking dogs to keep them on leashes.

For middle-class Chinese, the canine controls are an unwelcome intrusion into their private lives, and a reminder of extremist political campaigns in decades past, when pet keeping was deemed an anti-communist, bourgeoisie luxury.

“At first we decided to forget about it, but then we missed him too much. It's a lot of fun having a dog for company, sometimes better than some people,” Wang said. “But one dog is enough.” Ada Xu, a 35-year-old office worker, already was paying the required fees for her beloved "Tata," a brown Pekinese.

“It's expensive, but I can afford it. And anyway I don't care whether or not I can have another dog,” she said.

With more than 1.3 billion people, China is the most populous nation. For nearly three decades, Chinese leaders have enforced one of the world's strictest family planning policies. Most urban families are limited to a single child, while farmers are often allowed to have two. Critics say the policy is coercive and has led to numerous abuses such as forced abortions, which continue to occur in some areas.