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In 1979 China introduced one of the largest social engineering efforts in human history – the ‘one-child policy’ – to combat population growth. In addition to leaving the country with problematic demographic imbalances, this family planning policy has created an underclass of 13 million unregistered people, all born ‘illegally’. Parents with more than one child have been fired from their jobs and burdened with exorbitant fines or fees to register their unsanctioned children. Even more troubling, people without official registration are not classed as Chinese citizens, and so can’t access even the most basic forms of social welfare, including healthcare, education and protection under the law, nor do they have the right to work or marry. In 2015 the Chinese Communist Party announced it would ease the one-child policy and grant residence rights to all unregistered people, but millions must still fight arduous bureaucratic battles to be granted basic rights.
Video by Thomson Reuters Foundation
Filming: Shanshan Chen
video
Values and beliefs
How a God-fearing Jewish woman found atheism – and bacon – in her later years
9 minutes
video
War and peace
Before he leaves to go to war, Artem, 18, says goodbye to the man who raised him
12 minutes
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Computing and artificial intelligence
How machine learning can help historians decode ancient inscriptions
7 minutes
video
Animals and humans
What the ancient city of Kars looks like from the perspective of its stray dogs
9 minutes
video
Family life
A son of China’s former one-child policy remembers the sibling he never had
8 minutes
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Making
Ceramic designs spin to life in a tactile meditation on the art of pottery
9 minutes
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Information and communication
From mental image to sketch – how memories and emotions conjure up a face
23 minutes
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Childhood and adolescence
When Paradise, California burned, its teens became instant climate refugees
23 minutes
video
Gender and identity
How the spy-cam epidemic in South Korea affects the women who are its victims
35 minutes