This was so interesting for me to see, because I've experienced the same thing - people I know who have lived & worked there (China)  have such a different view from those who haven't. 

And if you talk positively about China in the US, you are viewed with skepticism at best, at worst - viewed as a traitor. Judged by people who have never been to China!

-Greg Reed

How to have a baby in China. This article discusses what it is like for a foreigner to have a baby inside of China and give it Chinese citizenship. If you do not want to give it Chinese citizenship then there are few other options available for you. The baby would be born within China and be a “stateless person”. It would be your responsibility to apply for citizenship at the nearest embassy or consulate.

Why not automatically make it American?

I cannot tell you, my dear reader, how many times people have asked me this. They ask “Why didn’t you give your Child American citizenship?” As if, suddenly the American citizenship would grant my child an automatic and wonderful life…

Hey! Have you been watching the United States lately?

But I will describe it in the simplist way possible.

Imagine three children;

• Tom. Chinese born. Chinese citizen. Raised in China.
• Dick. Chinese born. American citizen. Raised in China.
• Harry. Chinese born. American citizen. Raised in America.

If you look at the three children, you can pretty much say that “Tom” represents most Chinese people. They are born in China of Chinese parents, and they attend Chinese schools, and have excellent opportunities within China.

Dick is the kind of child that a number of expats are faced with. As an expat, they come to China as part of a two or three year long duration package as part of a career move. They want their children to be raised where ever they live, but they want them to be American citizens to “enjoy” the rights and privileges of “being an American”.

Harry represents a scenario that many rich Chinese face. They want to move to America and raise their children as American citizens. So while the child might be born inside of China, they are raised in America as an American.

The Trade offs…

Well, most people reading this are neither native Chinese living in China (the “Tom” situation), nor a rich and wealthy Chinese who emigrated to China. (The “Harry” situation.) They are in the “Dick” situation.

And their question is simple.

Should the baby apply for Chinese citizenship or American (or other country) citizenship?

Well, to make the decision process easier, I have broken it down. Keep in mind that it is a far greater amount of work to make your baby a Chinese citizen than to make it an American citizen.

[1] Baby as a Chinese citizen…

You must follow the application procedures and be approved. The government will monitor the healthy of the baby and you must take tests and attend classes during the entire pregnancy.

Once the baby is born, it can attend Chinese schools, and be treated as a Chinese citizen even if one of it’s parents is non-Chinese. It gets social insurance, and placement in schools and the educational process.

When it grows up, it will have a “Family Register”, with a history, and be able to set up businesses within China. It will be subject to Chinese income tax which (for around 80% of citizens) is under 3% of the yearly income taken directly from the paycheck with no annual reporting requirements.

[2] Baby as a American citizen…

The baby can be birthed anywhere and no tests or procedures are required. However, it will not be granted a birth certificate. So the parents must work with the embassy before the birth to apply for citizenship. If you give birth, and do not have a birth certificate, you have until the baby is five years old before the difficulty in application process goes exponential.

Once the baby is approved and is an American (or other national), it can live pretty much like it’s expat parents, except…

It cannot go to most schools. Only Chinese students can go to the local school. It must go to an “approved” school that is permitted to take foreign students.

Can Foreigners Go to Primary or Secondary School in China?

While most international schools will only accept Chinese students who hold a foreign passport, Chinese public schools are required by law to accept children of legal foreign residents. 

Admissions requirements vary but most schools require an admissions application, health records, passport, visa information, and previous school records. Some, like nurseries and kindergartens, require a birth certificate. Others require recommendation letters, assessments, on-campus interviews, entrance exams, and language requirements.

Students who cannot speak Mandarin are usually held back a few grades and usually start in first grade until their language skills improve. All classes except English are taught entirely in Chinese. Going to a local school in China has become a popular choice for expat families who live in China but can’t afford the high price of international schools.

The admissions materials at local schools are typically in Chinese and there’s little support for families and students who do not speak Chinese. Schools in Beijing that accept foreign students include Fangcaodi Primary School (芳草地小学) and The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China Beijing Ritan High School (人大附中).

There are over 70 schools approved by China’s Ministry of Education to provide foreign instruction. Unlike local children, foreigners must pay a yearly tuition which varies but starts at about 28,000RMB.

-What Is School in China Like

So your child has three options.

[1] If you live in a big city like Shanghai, Beijing, or Shenzhen, there is the possibility that an “approved” school will take in your child. Be prepared to pay a fee, and your child will probably need to go down a few grades until their Chinese language skills are improved.

[2] You child can be home schooled.

[3] Your child can attend “International Schools”. In China, the international schools are among the most expensive in the world with costs approaching $10,000 / month or 70,000 rmb/month.

• International Schools and the Education System in China …
• Fees and prices for International School of Beijing
• International Schools in China – Our Complete Guide
• Education and Schools in China | Expat Arrivals

Then once the baby gets older, it must obey American tax law where ever it lives. Which means that if the child decides to stay in China, it must pay both American taxes to the IRS as well as Chinese taxes. It will be double taxed for the rest of it’s life. This handicap MUST be taken into consideration in any calculus regarding the child’s future.

• Expat Double Taxation and US Policy | MyExpatTaxes
• double taxation | Americans Overseas
• 25 Things You Need to Know About US Expat Taxes
• Taxation Of US Expats: The Basics – Expat Network
• Expat Taxes: The Complete Guide to Taxation for American

Things have mitigated somewhat for expats, but Americans do need to be careful and file yearly reports to the government. These requirements of reporting income, telling the American government what you do and why, and asking permission on how you handle financial affairs, whether it results in tax liabilities or not, are repugnant to a free person. It is up to you to decide if you want to saddle your child with this reporting nightmare.

Applying for Citizenship.

Most people assume that China is like their nation. That it has birth-right citizenship. You know, like America has. And that all you need to do is have sex, go to a hospital or even to a parking-lot, and have some witnesses that sign a birth certificate, and zoom! Your baby is a citizen.

Birthright citizenship is the legal principle that any person born on U.S. soil automatically becomes a citizen of the United States. 

Birthright citizenship was established in 1868 by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and confirmed by the US Supreme Court in the 1898 case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark.

-Birthright Citizenship in the United States

Nope. China doesn’t have this. Not in the least. And that is a good thing. It helps mitigate if not eliminate entirely many of the ills that America is facing with unrestricted immigration, “birthright immigration” and a “welfare state”.

If you want your baby to become a citizen of China, you must apply.

In short, you need to go down to the local government office, and fill out the application form; “Application for a baby to become a Chinese citizen while still in the womb.” (Or something like that.)

The rules are very strict. You either meet them or you do not. There is no “wiggle room” for borderline cases.

To become a citizen in China, you need to have a [1] male father, a [2] female mother, and [3] one of the parents must be of Chinese ancestry. Further, you need to apply with these criteria, to the local government office, and be approved by them.

If they approve, then they will issue you with two books. (And they are books.) One is white and one is pink. You will use these books to record and monitor the baby health while in the womb.

Monitoring the prenatal growth of the fetus.

The local government watches and maintains records of the baby’s growth in the womb. They provide mandatory training sessions for the mother, and pay for the tests to make sure that the baby will not have any defects or any sort of retardation.

If the baby has a physical, or mental defect, you will have a problem.

In short, you will not be permitted to have the baby and obtain citizenship for it.

Yes. You can still have the baby if your really want to. It’s just that it will not be a Chinese baby.

However, you will [1] need to pay for all the medical care and support by yourself. It will be a great financial burden, and [2] it will not be a citizen. Which means additional headaches.

In short, the odds that a parent would want to continue and give birth to the baby once it was found to have a defect at some level, like an inherited illness, a genetic defect that might cause a mental or psychological disorder, or a physical disorder is very… very small.

During the entire nine months of pregnancy a series of tests must occur that includes bloodwork and exams of the mother, as well as scans of the baby in the womb.

In order to prevent termination of the embryo because it might not be of the preferred gender (typically male in remote rural areas, like the Xinjiang Muslim areas), strict rules are in place that keeps the baby gender unknown until the moment of birth. This goes through every test. Including the DNA test.

In the DNA test, a needle is inserted into the womb and extracts a DNA sample of the baby. It then goes to a lab and is studies for all sort of inherited or rare illnesses or unusually allergies that might be present in abnormal DNA. The DNA that determines whether it is a boy or a girl is intentionally blacked out so the parent is unable to see what sex the baby would be.

Birthing Hospital

While any hospital can give birth to a baby, the local government would prefer you to use a “birthing hospital”. This hospital deals in one thing… anything about giving birth from the moment of conception to post birth problems.

These are busy places.

They usually are part of a big, wide campus. And on that campus are various buildings for pre-birth training, and what to expect for young mothers. As well as traditional Chinese medicine services. (Which actually DO WORK.)

Story time…

When we were trying to get pregnant (my wife that is), we were having a difficult time at it. We used artificial insemination, and yet, we had four (x4) miscarriages. Yikes! It’s was not only totally and completely expensive but a roller-coaster ride of emotion. After the fourth miscarriage, we went to the head doctor who said that we were doing everything right, but it wasn’t working. So she had us go to the Chinese traditional doctor section.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

So we went to the “Traditional Chinese Medicine” wing of the sprawling hospital complex. We made an appointment with the doctor there.

The doctor sat her down. Looked at her hands. Looked at her mouth. Looked at her feet. Then studied her spine. After examining her, the doctor said “well, of course!” She explained. “Your womb is cold!” She elaborated. “You can never give birth if your womb is cold and not receptive. You need to make it warm”.

Now the terms “warm” and “cold” are not direct translations for the Chinese terms. For there are no English terms for what they were describing. But it was close enough.

So she had to make these terrible concoctions of drinks that she quaffed down. She was put on a strict diet of what she could eat and drink. She also had to perform a kind of smoke therapy with this “smoke box” that she put on her belly and burned these kinds of strange grasses and plants on top of it with.

After four months of this, the doctor looked at her tongue and hands, then examined her feet and said “ok, you are ready and ripe to have a baby”.

Then, we went and had another artificial insemination (her egg and my little guys) and it took! So yeah, nine months later we had a beautiful Chinese baby girl.

Nay-Sayers say that this was just coincidence. But nope. It’s not. This and other events have 100% convinced me of the benefits of Traditional Chinese medicine.

The paperwork was automatic. Not only did she get a birth certificate, but she was placed in the “Family Register”. This is a book that lists all the members of a given household.

Inoculations

The government has an entire operation and system for monitoring the growth and well-being of young children. That includes monitoring of the child’s growth and weight. A review of the condition of the mother and the family environment. As well as all inoculations.

This is tied together with the local police.

If you do not attend the training course, or the doctor visits, the police will call you up and ask you if everything is going ok. I am not taking about missing a few scheduled appointments. I am referring to missing one singular appointment.

The Chinese view the early development of children to be the future of society; the bedrock of the Chinese nation and culture, as well as important to the future health of the economy of the world.

Certain regions have this police interaction all automated, and in Wenzhou there is an APP that is a straight direct line to the local police.

Yes. The local police knows who your baby is and everything about your child. If you child is lost or disoriented, it can go into any police station and they will be able to find out who it is and where it lives. If a new child appears in any police districts, it is noticed. And thus added to the central database. Thus stolen or lost childen are quickly found and accounted for.

Buying a house so the child can attend school.

Free government schools do not exist in China.

The schools are all associated with the local communities. For your child to attend a local school in the neighborhood, you must own a house.  Housing complexes have kindergarden, primary and middle schools attached.

Chinese children all get a primary and middle school public education. Each class averages 35 students. After middle school, parents must pay for public high school.

-What Is School in China Like

Now, unlike the USA, there are limits in house ownership. While it depends on the region, I can tell you that the limits for house ownership in Zhuhai, China are as follows…

• Three house limit for the Father to own.
• Three house limit for the Mother to own.
• If the parent is a foreigner, then it is a two house limit.
• The child is permitted to own no more than three houses.

Thus, a family of three (father, mother and baby) can own at most nine homes in Zhuhai, China.

Some notes.

Houses in China typically are part of enormous housing developments with schools and businesses set up in clusters.

Houses tend to be smaller than American houses.

Houses tend to be much more expensive than American houses.

In China property is not taxed. The Chinese believe that real freedom is the ability to own property, and real ownership of this means that it is free of taxiation and regulation.

Once you obtain a house, then your child can potentially attend the local school there. There is a criteria that is used for placement within the school, and it all revolves around your own personal family stability and social history.

When I mention this to Americans the “knee jerk” reaction is to think that that most Chinese students then don’t attend school. Their reasoning is that since most Americans are either renters or paying a mortage, that this must be true in the rest of the world as well. But actually the exact opposite is true. Most Chinese people OWN their houses. Renting is what is typically done by unmarried couples, or people who have to work away from their homes.

Obtaining the certificate of motherhood.

In order to assure that your child is able to get a seat within a local school, you will need to meet certain criteria based on your roles, your work, your career, and your contribution to society. This is the much maligned “social credit scoring” that you hear so much about in the American media.

• Social Credit Scoring In China Extends To Foreign ..
• China’s Social Credit Score – US-China Today
• Chinese Social Credit Score: Utopian Big Data Bliss Or …
• China’s Scary Social Credit System Made in USA by Google …
• China to give every citizen a ‘social credit score’ by …

But it’s not really a bad thing. Just don’t be rude, a criminal, or disruptive. You can increase your social rating through community efforts, being helpful, and other means.

If you are a troublemaker with a history of scamming people, or polluting, or just being rude, your score will be lower than someone who isn’t.

• If you participate in the riots in Hong Kong, for example, your social rating is now zero… forever.
• If you pushed someone on the bus or had some kind of altercation, or just threw trash on the road and was filmed by a road cam in the process, you will have a reduction in your social rating.

Now, in order to guarantee high placement of your child in a local school you will need to take a class in being a mother. You will get a certificate, and that grade and the presence of the certificate will guarantee placement in the best classes of students in the best schools.

This class is a very comprehensive and difficult class that involves books, movies, first-hand class instruction and homework. You must get over a 90% to pass the class and obtain the certificate. My wife took the class, and it consists of two tests. The first being 1000 questions and the second being 300 questions.

Conclusion

The decision to have a child in China is a big one, but need not be frightening. China is a fair and just place that is well organized, if very large and populated. The key to your child’s health and well being lies with you. And the very first decision you should make is what citizenship should your child have.

In this case, do you want Chinese or American citizenship?

As an American citizen, I chose Chinese citizenship for my children. I see China in 2040 bigger, stronger, happier and better in just about every way compared to a 2040 America. But that is just me. Many others disagree with me, and believe the opposite; that America is the best, always was and always will be.

Well…

Only time will tell.

Best Regards.

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