
Researchers may have ‘found’ many of China’s 30M missing girls - kafkaesq
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/11/30/researchers-may-have-found-many-of-chinas-30-million-missing-girls/?tid=pm_world_pop&utm_term=.0b9d69013c87
======
pierrec
It's well known that many Chinese are financially unable to register their
second+ child. The unregistered children have no official identity, can't lead
normal lives, can't go to school, etc. It's to be expected that some will
choose not to register their first when it's a girl. Hopefully this will soon
be a thing of the past as they are loosening the policies.

There are many other documentaries and articles on unregistered children such
as this:

[http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/10/world/asia/china-second-
child/](http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/10/world/asia/china-second-child/)

~~~
seanmcdirmid
This is only partially true, with many exceptions.

But ya, many girls in the countryside are hukou-free, unregistered, off the
grid, non-persons, etc...China is trying to change this, the central gov would
prefer everyone was registered, but local governments make too much money on
family planning fines to give it up.

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jewel
In the United States we had the opposite problem. The 1986 Tax Reform mandated
that the social security numbers of children be included in order to claim
them as dependents to get a tax break. Seven million children 'disappeared'
the next year.

[http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/dependents.asp](http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/dependents.asp)

~~~
AtheistOfFail
If I remember correctly, a lot of it was traced to divorced parents claiming
the children on both tax refunds which this law did away with, only the person
with most/solo custody can claim the children now.

~~~
acdha
The snopes.com link above quotes this towards the bottom:

”The tax agency said about 20 percent of the vanished dependents were children
who had been claimed as dependents by both parents after a divorce. Under the
law, only one parent may claim the child as a deduction.

Most of the others probably never existed, John Szilagyi, an I.R.S.
researcher, said. And some families apparently became quite greedy in creating
dependents, each worth a $1,080 deduction in 1986, and $1,900 in 1987.

About 66,000 taxpayers who claimed four or more dependents in 1986 claimed
none in 1987, after the Social Security identification rule went into effect.
And more than 11,000 families claimed seven or more dependents in 1986, but
none in 1987.”

~~~
AtheistOfFail
> And more than 11,000 families claimed seven or more dependents in 1986, but
> none in 1987.

So, big lie, you mean. ->
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie)

~~~
acdha
That doesn't seem relevant to this thread?

~~~
AtheistOfFail
It is, it's a technique where the bigger the lie, the harder to dispute.

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andrewfromx
oh I see, the official policy was 1 child, but when multiple births happened
or the 1st child was a girl, the local hospital type people just looked the
other way and never put the birth into the system.

~~~
swuecho
A lot of the people in china simply are not borned in hospital 20 ago.

Every family has at least two children from where I grown up, even the
official of the village. More like the case of speeding. You are not allowed,
but you can get away with it, if the police are not there or feel it is better
for him to not give you a ticket.

even a lot of Chinese are surprised when I talk about this with them. So be
careful about the media's report. (they report what they think it is true, but
might not)

~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
but you are allowed... one of the big myths is that there was a universal
policy. in fact the policy applied to only city dwellers in big congested
cities. villagers and ethnic minorities did not have the restriction. the
policy applied to like only 30pc of households

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aluminussoma
This is great news. I hosted a mutual friend from China for several weeks. At
the time, the guest had a family relation in China who was pregnant with her
second child. She choice to abort the baby because the associated financial
penalties would be too high.

I hope more research is done to quantify the number of unregistered births. I
personally find 25 million unregistered out of 30 to 60 million estimated to
be a bit high of a ratio.

------
rplst8
So either the missing girls where aborted, killed, or once the family had a
boy as the first child, they stopped having kids. Or people just ignored the
policy altogether.

And central planning works how exactly?

~~~
gohrt
What are you talking about? The article argues that the unaccounted girls were
_not_ aborted or killed.

Anyway, to answer your question, the central planning works to reduce
population growth.

~~~
zhemao
I think this article casts some doubt on whether the one-child policy was
actually successful at reducing population growth. It certainly reduced the
birth rate in urban areas where enforcement was stronger. But it seems like
rural families had just as many kids as they would otherwise.

~~~
meric
The families who had male children as their first child were more likely to
have less children.

