In Jiangxi Province, China, a 12-year-old boy has sued his biological parents for lack of residence registration. The boy, named Yang, was placed by his mother with another family at the age of 8 months because he was born out of wedlock.
When the boy was born, the woman did not obtain a birth certificate for the child or a residence permit. When Yang grew up, the latter caused a lot of difficulties for him, because without a residence permit, for example, he could not enrol in secondary school.
The boy’s biological mother also promised to pay the family money to raise her son, but never did. The family took care of the child anyway. In 2020, however, Ian decided to get money from his biological mother, not his biological father, by suing him. A forensic examination in 2019 proved a blood relationship, so Yang won the trial and has since received a monthly maintenance payment of 1,000 yuan.
After that, the boy also wanted to get a registration from his biological parents. At first he simply asked them, but the mother claimed that her living conditions were not good enough, and the father did not want to register his illegitimate son as he feared that it would negatively affect his current family, which already had three children.
Eventually the case had to be settled through the courts. With the support of his foster family, Yang sued his biological parents for registration in January 2022. He said that he would also be willing to register with the family where he was being raised, but later, when the living conditions there were better, as apparently the existing conditions would not allow the family to obtain a registration for the child from the authorities.
After a series of twists and turns, in April Yang was able to get his biological father to register him and in May he finally received his birth certificate. He thanked the court for finally being able to become a “person” – on paper.