"I do not exist. I literally live as my sister's shadow." -Li Xue
history of the ocp (family planning policy)
Before we go and advocate about the OCP here is a little background on what exactly it is.
In the period of Mao ZeDong's leadership in China, a hostile relation with the United States was made. The government encouraged families to have as many children as possible, to swarm the US with people . During this time, China's life expectancy and infant mortality rates also improved drasically; and as a result their population rose from 554 million in the 1950s to a billion by the 1980s (a doubling time of appr. 30 years!) The leaders soon realized that the current rate of Population Growth was unsustainable, and from the early 1960s the government introduced family planning methods into china.
However, most of the methods did not work because of the public's reluctance to discuss the issue. The one child policy was then established in 1979 to combat China's rapid population growth.
without an identity
The birth registration is the process in which a child is given a permanent record of their existence. It is the first and most important step to obtaining their nationality, and their rights.
The One Child Policy is the law set by the Chinese government in the early 1970s to fight the uncontrolled population growth across the country. It states that each married couple may only have one child, and in many cases a if broken; a consequence fee that many couples in china are not able to pay.
If the couple are not able to pay the fee, they are not eligible to register the child, therefore they are not given a record for their existence and they are not able to get a job, get married or even leave the country. There are currently estimated to be 33 million unregistered citizens living in China right now.