The Chinese public's acceptance of children born outside marriage is slowly becoming greater amid recognition that many couples do not want children or even wish to marry. Single parents should be treated the same as everyone else, Huang Wenzheng, a researcher at the Center for China and Globalization, told
the 21st Century Business Herald.
Recently, a microblog post which stated that unmarried women could register their children without the father has been widely circulated. The post, from a police station in a district of Beijing on Sina Weibo, said under “Notes on Handling Newborn Households” that children born out of wedlock can be registered just by using the mother’s documentation.
But this is not a new rule. Since 2016, Beijing has allowed registration of children born outside marriage to either the mother or father, but the change has not been promoted.
Most netizens responded positively. Many people think that the government's restrictions on births outside marriage are being lifted because China is already caught in a low fertility trap. Although Chinese society's acceptance of non-marital births is much lower than that of Western countries, the factors that give rise to this are increasing.
In particular, strict birth restrictions and patriarchal thinking have caused long-term gender imbalances. Millions of young men, particularly in rural areas, cannot find a suitable match. Due to the rapid improvement in women's education and professional level, some women in cities are also struggling to find an appropriate partner.
This two-way squeeze makes the proportion of successful marriages lower and lower. According to a survey conducted by China's Ministry of Civil Affairs at the end of 2015, 200 million people of marriageable age are single. Many of these people will still want to have a child, even if they don't get married. Beijing's move to allow single mothers to register their child is obviously beneficial to these would-be parents, and it may help somewhat with the low fertility rate.
The abolition of policy discrimination against single parents should not be solely due to population and economic development considerations, but should be a step forward in safeguarding basic rights and interests. The behavior and status of the parents should not jeopardize a child's basic rights. It is not only reasonable for children born out of wedlock to enjoy the same legal rights as legitimate children, but also a matter of legal compliance, Huang said.
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