New | CPPCC delegate highlights perks of Chinese mums giving birth abroad
Family planning expert reacts to celebrity journalist's overseas delivery by outlining benefits of the practice
A population expert with the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has justified star reporter Chai Jing’s controversial decision to give birth overseas, a citizenship-linked practice that has elicited disapproval abroad and in parts of China such as Hong Kong.
CPPCC delegate Ma Xu, the research department director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, responded to a question about Chai’s move by outlining three “advantages” to the practice.
Above all, it's not costly. You don’t need to pay the [penalty] if it’s your second child. Lastly, your child can obtain foreign citizenship
“Above all, it’s not costly,” Ma told the Beijing Times newspaper on Tuesday. “Also, you don’t need to pay the social compensation fee [penalty] if it’s your second child. Lastly, your child can obtain foreign citizenship.”
Under the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment, Chai’s daughter is an American citizen.
“It is unknown how she was able to pass the [security] checkpoint with a pregnant belly. But the halo of ‘the embodiment of press freedom and conscience’ and ‘the goddess of public intellectuals’ has probably granted her special access to an American visa,” the Southern Entertainment Weekly magazine wrote at the time.
