As China successfully cut its fertility and entered the low fertility regime with the
implementation of the country’s one-child policy, evaluation of the impact of the policy
also led to growing attention to some costs of the strict one-child policy. One issue
surfaced with the implementation of the policy, as seen by most people, is the growing
number of unregistered population in China. Particularly, an increasing number of
children, --- often times are believed to be born in excess of birth plan or born out of
wedlock, do not have a hukou, that is, are not officially registered in the national
household registration system. These children, referred to as “black children” in China,
usually lack legitimacy and basic rights, and are not entitled to state benefits. Having no
legal identities, they are hidden from the state system, and only exist in the marginalized
corners of society.
This issue of “out-of-plan” children’s registration status has been noted since the
late 1980s when reports on unregistered children surfaced in the national media, such as
The People’s Daily, and Xin Guancha [New Observance]. These reports suggested that
there were more than a million such unregistered children as of the end of 1980s. Chinese
census reports do show a considerable number of people with household registration
status recorded as “unsettled”. The 1982 census showed 4,754,602 persons not registered
(see table 1.1). As pointed out by Zhou (1987), the “rectification1
” of household registry
done prior to the census yielded 4,702,000 children without registration (born in excess
of birth plan or born out of wedlock), and 1,810,000 adults not holding registration. The
rectification solved 4,483,000 cases, but at the census reference time, an increment to the
un-registration was seen, due to addition of newborn babies. Then, the 1990 census
turned out an increase in un-registration with 8,535,536 persons unregistered, accounting
for 0.76% of the total population. It is estimated that the increase has much to do with the
increasing floating population as the economic reform progressed in the country, and the
spill-over of the family planning policy practice around the nation (Chen and Wang 1997,
Sun 1997). In 2000 census, the number decreased a bit, but still 8,052,484 persons have
registration unsettled, amounting to 0.65% of the total population.
Household registration is connected to birth planning because local officials tend
to block the registration of unplanned births. The census, in principle, counts all persons
regardless of registration status, and thus should contain a more complete count of
population than the household registers. Nonetheless, Chinese census counts are closely
linked to the household registration system (Lavely 2001). And both parents and officials
may have reasons to hide unregistered children from census enumerators. The census is
thus likely to undercount unregistered children. Then the actual number of unregistered
children could only be larger. Note the adverse fortune that these children are facing: theylack legitimate identity, and are generally blocked from access to a series of basic social
welfare benefits and state support, including health care, education and employment.
They tend to suffer from adverse social well being. This marginalized situation, in which
these unregistered children fall, generates a serious human problem.