Heihaizi

Heihaizi (Chinese: 黑孩子; pinyin: hēiháizi) or "black child" is a term applied in China. The term denotes children born outside the One child policy, or generally children who are not registered in the national household registration system.

Background and History

The desire for China to expand and grow economically following the Cultural Revolution became the driving force behind the One-Child policy because such a goal could not be achieved without slowing population growth and limiting the population to 1.1–1.2 billion by 2000. Implementation of the One-child policy included incentivizing families using privileges regarding education, living accommodations, and access to health care as well as monetary aid. They also discouraged having more than one child by penalizing families by limiting or removing their access to those same privileges.

These incentives and penalties were used to regulate the number of children allowed and spacing between those children should the family be allowed to have a second child. They were also used to regulate childbearing years of older couples that decided to get married. While the State Family Planning Bureau sets specific expectations for the One-child policy, local family-planning departments are in charge of implementation within their own region. This has led to a wide variation from province to province in the system that governs incentives and penalties used to regulate Chinese families. Minority groups are considered one of the few families that are exempted from the one child limit.