Like many other girls her age, the 18-year-old Li Xue longs for schooling, a good job, a trip overseas, and meeting her "Mr. Right." But none of these dreams can be achieved without a hukou, or resident registration certificate.
As the second child of the family, the Beijing-born Li could not get registered due to the nation's strict one-child policy.
Effective since 1979, the policy officially restricts married, urban couples to having only one child, although it allows exemptions for several cases, including rural couples, ethnic minorities, and parents without any siblings themselves.
The policy is enforced at the provincial level through fines that are imposed based on the income of the family and other factors. Population and Family Planning Commissions exist at every level of government to raise awareness about the issue and carry out registration and inspection work. Despite this policy, there are still many citizens that continue to have more than one child.
According to the 6th national population census released in April this year, there are 13 million unregistered residents in China, 1% of the total population.
Born a "black resident"
Both Xue's parents are handicapped, and thought they were exempt from the policy when Xue's mother Bai Xiuling gave birth to her in 1993, eight years after their first daughter Li Bin was born.
Xue's father, Li Hongyu decided to have Xue before applying for the registration certificate for her. "Having a child is not a crime, a violation maybe. But I thought it unlikely that they would lock me away for this," he said.
However, both Li and Bai underestimated the severity of the policy in the 1990s.
Heihu, or "black resident," is how Chinese people refer to those without resident registration certificates. Li's family was fined 5,000 RMB by the commission in 1993 for the birth of Li Xue, and Bai was fired by the factory she worked for.
At that time, the 5,000 yuan fine was an unbearable burden for most Chinese families, as most people's monthly salary was only 200 RMB and the Li family's monthly income was 100 RMB.
Unpaid fines could only mean one thing: Li Xue could not get registered like her peers, who could go to school, find a job, and get married.
According to the law, black residents have no rights at all, worse than stateless persons who are allowed to find jobs in the country they reside. Even prisoners have the right to work and get paid.
Li Xue has to borrow her sister Li Bin's medical insurance card if she wants to go to the hospital, and even her sister's library card to borrow books.
"I do not exist. I literally live as my sister's shadow," Xue said, as Bin found a job at KFC after junior high school while Xue could not because she did not have a CV. "I am not educated, never went to any school. How am I supposed to write one?" she said.
Opportunity missed
Li Hongyu has done everything in the past 18 years to get Xue registered. He wrote tirelessly to related-departments and higher authorities; in fact, that is the only thing that a retired handicap with no access resources can do.
Li's letters went unanswered. "An official will not get demoted for not giving a hukou to a 'black resident,' but if they do not enforce the one-child policy, they certainly will," an official told a reporter.
However, there is hope for those without certificates: the national population census, conducted every decade, allows authorities to register people like Li Xue, as a practical "amnesty" for those who live as shadows.
The southern province of Fujian registered 500,000 "black residents" with no pre-conditions in 2010, when the 6th national census was conducted.
In Beijing, the standards for registration certificates have been loosened over the past decade. In 2000, during the 5th population census, the city allowed impoverished families like Li's to finance their one-child policy fine over time.
Unfortunately, Li missed this critical piece of information. Not until 2008, did he recall that there was an enumerator knocking at his door back in 2000 that put Xue's name on a form.
"Such amnesty will not solve the problem entirely since there are still so many people like Li Xue, who live in impoverished families and cannot get registered," Liang Zhongtang, an expert at the National Population and Family Planning Commission said.
Every census that is seen as amnesty by people like Li Hongyu can only ease, not solve the problem. "As long as the one-child policy is bound with the hukou system, the question will remain unanswered," said Liang.
Although the resident registration certificate is still a hurdle for her, the self-educated Li Xue registered on the micro-blogging site Weibo, which is similar to Twitter, under the name "xiaoxie never give up." She writes about her family's struggle while waiting for her "amnesty."
