The Chinese household registration system has once again revealed a scandal. An elderly person in Jiangsu found out that there were 8 unrelated minor children under their household registration, and the person was completely unaware of it. Netizens have criticized the opaque management of household registration, calling for the abolition of the system and the elimination of privileges.
On August 8th, a netizen posted that when their mother went back to their hometown in Jiangsu to handle a property transfer, they discovered that there were 8 minor children listed under their household registration. These 8 “affiliated” children had different surnames, none of which belonged to the local area. They had been living outside the region for years, and if it weren’t for this property transfer, they wouldn’t have known about it.
Due to the proximity of the family’s house to the city center and the better school district, the netizen suspected that this might be related to “seat snatching” for enrollments in better schools.
According to a reporter from Tèxī News, the family is located in Danyang City, Jiangsu Province, a county-level city under the administration of Zhenjiang City. The netizen stated, “The physical household registration is in our possession, but when the electronic registration was checked by the housing bureau, it showed 8 minor children listed under the household!”
Based on identification card information, these 8 “children” range in age from 4 to 17 years old. The oldest was born in August 2007, the youngest in November 2019, with two of them having birthdates only a month apart. Their surnames are all different, coming from Anhui, Henan, and other cities in Jiangsu.
On August 9th, the netizen’s mother went to the local police station to verify this issue. However, the physical household registration issued by the police station did not show any children listed, only the mother. The police station responded that “the household registration management in the jurisdiction is fine, and the 8 children listed on the household are not found in the jurisdiction’s household registration system, and it has been handed over to the housing bureau for verification.”
The response from the Real Estate Registration Center in Danyang City stated that if someone in the family is registered under a collective household, it may show children from other families. They mentioned the possibility of migrant workers settling in collective units.
However, regarding the property, the netizen said the property is a self-built house in an urban village in the local city center, with no leasing involved.
The netizen shared their mother’s experience on social media platforms, triggering a wave of responses from many netizens who have gone through similar experiences.
A netizen from Jiangsu mentioned, “My grandmother is 100 years old, and there is also an inexplicable child listed under her name, related to someone who used to be the head of the local police station a long time ago. It’s infuriating, I’m about to contact the television station.”
Another netizen from Jiangsu shared, “The household registration book of our family also indicates the same issue. When we went to the police station, they told us that the person in charge had passed away, asked us to wait for an investigation, but then there was no follow-up.”
A netizen from Hubei recounted, “We also encountered this before, with my mother listed as the head of the household, but 2 unknown children were under her name. When I turned 18, my mother wanted to remove me from the household to buy a house for me. However, when the police asked to identify which child to remove, they discovered that there were 3 children listed on the police computer system for our household, which we had never observed on our physical registration. Once the police noticed, they immediately removed the extra entries.”
A netizen from Tianjin commented, “Our boss’s child entered the best local primary school last year by paying 50,000 yuan. I think the situation with the children listed under your household registration is similar, where parents pay for their children’s privileges. They provide comprehensive services.”
Analysis by netizens suggests that the root cause of all these issues lies in the chaotic management of household registration. “They have manipulated illegal household registrations through insiders at the police stations.” “Household registration is used to control honest people.” “I don’t believe there isn’t corruption involved.” “Can the housing bureau access household registrations? The problem is evident to everyone!” “Calls to abolish household registration and privileges, advocating for equality for all.”
Some have questioned, “After so many years of rectification, governance, and supervision, why do certain crucial enforcement agencies still face numerous issues and remain disgraceful?”
Ms. Ying Hongguan, currently living in Germany, expressed in an interview with Da Ji Yuan that she had once bought a false identity to circumvent the family planning restrictions in order to have a second child. Similar situations were prevalent at that time, with at least over a million cases of duplicate ID numbers being detected nationwide.
“The local Chinese authorities simultaneously enforce family planning restrictions while selling household registrations on the side,” Ying Hongguan stated.
Fuyi Feng, a stateless person residing in Southeast Asia, informed a Da Ji Yuan reporter that such occurrences no longer surprise him. The household registration management department not only has the power to grant households but also to cancel them at their discretion. When it comes to their interests, even when an elderly person has passed away, the police do not cancel the deceased person’s registration, enabling them to unlawfully claim pensions and subsidies meant for the deceased.
“This happened to me personally. When I last went to update our household registration, the police found out that my grandfather had been deceased for 7 years, yet his registration was still active, and we have no idea who has been benefiting from his pension.” He explained.
Fuyi Feng’s analysis of the aforementioned cases suggests that these issues also involve identity theft, human trafficking, hiding the identities of illegitimate children of high-ranking officials, and other illegal activities that they prefer to keep hidden.
For some individuals within the system, to facilitate various criminal activities, they often have more than one registration. This means they possess multiple IDs, so if one identity is compromised, they can depend on another clean
identity with no records to start afresh.