suppose a middle class young couple goes to live in Vietnam or Russia for a year, long enough to have another baby, and then comes back to China with both their kids. Are there factors preventing such scenarios? Does the one child policy somehow deal with the issue? Or is the government just quietly very happy about the eugenic goodness of such procreation by the affluent?
After my Chinese co-worker had her first child I asked her what might happen if she had a second child, then went back to China. According to her it’s no big deal.
I recall a case about a Chinese couple seeking political assylum in the USA because they had a second child while on a work contract here. And they claimed they’d be in trouble if they had to return with two kids. I don’t recall how it turned out
rich families in China can just pay the fine for having a second child, that’s probably less than the cost of living overseas for a year.
according to wiki:
Additional children will result in large fines: families violating the policy are required to pay monetary penalties and might be denied bonuses at their workplace. Children born in overseas countries are not counted under the policy if they do not obtain Chinese citizenship. Chinese citizens returning from abroad can have a second child.[12]
Markxxx - IIRC that case was 25 years ago.
I guess you can say it depends.
First, kids don’t count if they don’t have Chinese citizenship. It’s really really really hard to gain citizenship if you’'re not born with it.
Second, in many parts of the countryside, it’s tolerated to have a second child if the first is a girl. Not official policy but tolerated. A former nanny had a second girl. She is now contemplating a third attempt but the local family planning authorities are setting her up for sterilization. She doesn’t really have the money to move elsewhere to avoid this or be part of the 200-300 MILLION migrant population that would fall through the cracks until baby #3 is born.
In the bigger cities, second kids are generally not tolerated. Certainly, I ran into this with my wife’s second pregnancy in Shanghai. The government family planning bureau has metrics and this was definately on their radar. You have to have family planning bureau approval in order to get pre-natal support. This is changing somewhat with some private hospitals. We had to promise that our eldest would give up Chinese citizenship so we would fall within the one child policy.
Again, it varies by locale, but many areas in the countryside, women with 2 kids get a free sterilization. This does not happen in the larger cities. Also, given modern economics, the larger cities it costs a lot to have a child/children and naturally enforces the one child policy. I also see in the cities that there is a much smaller bias toward having boys than in the countryside. Some people recognizing that by the time their kids grow up, females will be more “valuable.” That said, it really struck me when my eldest started first grade in a local school. Every class lined up in boy girl rows. Every class had a couple more boys.
At least in Shanghai 5 years ago, if you can afford a residence in 2 different districts, then the existing system would not catch you. Eg, household in district A had 1 child, and household in district B was pregnant and the systems were seperate.
After you have the kid, there is a hefty fine. Maybe like USD10,000 now. I’m not really sure. 20 years ago it was about $2k. Plus you have to pay for all sorts of public services like public schools that are free for 1 kid.
Politically, it’s a lot better to have the kid outside of China. I’m not sure Wiki is correct about Chinese citizens returning from abroad being able to have another child. It would surprise me if this is the national policy.
Divorced parents can also have another child but I’m not sure the exact rules.
Multiples count as 1. I haven’t seen any information to suggest that people are using fertility drugs to get around the 1 child policy.
My kids gave up the Chinese citizenship for US (and more because the US was a pain in the ass for dual nationality). It didn’t count they had a foreign father and local mother, as they still had Chinese citizenship. Couples where the mother and father are both foreigners are exempt.
Some of the non-Han Chinese minority groups like Tibetans are exempt from the one child policy. I’m not sure if there is a limit on how many kids they can have these days.
One of the biggest consequences of violating the one-child policy (besides the fine) is that if you work for the government, you will likely lose your job. So if you are willing to work in private business, you may find some leeway. But people with government jobs do a pretty good job making sure they do not violate the policy.