China, and maybe some other Asian countries have a household registration ( hukou 户口) system.
Only people born into the system get to exist for things like schools, national insurance, etc.
So any unofficially born second children (or hidden first born daughters) didn’t get to legally count under this.
Also; children born out of marriage don’t exist for state schools or benefits, either.
Where your hukou is limits your options for access to housing, claims on social security and health insurance, and the like.
Mostly if you were born into a very rural area your only pathway to legally having a place to live and for your children to go to school in another part of the country is via university graduation.
There are pushes to change this system, and smaller cities are removing their requirements for non-rural hukou. But Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities you have probably heard of are yet to do this.
China, and maybe some other Asian countries have a household registration ( hukou 户口) system.
Only people born into the system get to exist for things like schools, national insurance, etc.
So any unofficially born second children (or hidden first born daughters) didn’t get to legally count under this.
Also; children born out of marriage don’t exist for state schools or benefits, either.
Where your hukou is limits your options for access to housing, claims on social security and health insurance, and the like. Mostly if you were born into a very rural area your only pathway to legally having a place to live and for your children to go to school in another part of the country is via university graduation.
There are pushes to change this system, and smaller cities are removing their requirements for non-rural hukou. But Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities you have probably heard of are yet to do this.