I'm curious to know how those British+Chinese kids handle travels then?

I doubt the border guards on Chinese side check whether the person in question has British or some other passport in addition to the Chinese passport, and adjust their policy accordingly...

@JanJal
This was actually discussed and debated at some length on a separate thread recently.

In a nutshell, if the British/Chinese child is leaving China on a Birth Certificate, they also need an Entry/Exit Permit from the PSB. If they use Chinese & British passports its gets more complicated because of the entry / exit stamps and the need for visas. Some contributors to the thread said they juggled their passports and relied on border guards not checking closely, usually successfully. My (Chinese) wife and I have avoided getting a Chinese passport for our son for that reason (for now) and relied on the Birth Cert & Entry/Exit Permit system, which works every time.

@Ocean - are you saying that when you leave China (airport or border crossing?) they'll let the baby go without a passport, just a birth certificate and a E/E permit?

On the names thing, a person can only have one legal name as I understand it. So I suggest you pick one name, either in Chinese characters or the roman alphabet, and stick with it. My daughter only has an English name. We figured this would make things easier getting her a UK passport, which is currently a good one (about to become much less useful thanks to Brexit). If you intend your child to live in China for a long time, say more than 5 years, a Chinese name may be easier because its short and Chinese officials will be able to read and recognise it easily.

@Haali:

michael2015 here wrote that their child has two completely different names in different jurisictions, so it must be possible.

Also if Chinese name in birth certificate is in Mandarin, foreign authorities cannot be expected to be able to tell how that translates to letters of English or some other language.

Even if using Pinyin, there is no guarantee that the Pinyin text wouldn't have a foul or even illegal meaning in some random language.

So it makes sense that two separate names are possible, and as far as legality goes, every country has their own laws and under each such law a person would only have one name, even if globally he has two (or more).

@Haali
For leaving China, yes. We then use his British passport to get into other countries.

yes, very true JanJal

Thanks Ocean

@ Ocean.
"It might be worth mentioning that for British citizens, you can't get a British visa for your Chinese passport if you also hold a British passport. Seems like US is different."

It's a bit more complicated and there's an easy way around it. Friend of mine is British. Currently daughter only has Chinese passport but when she was born he also got a birth certificate through the British consulate meaning you can claim citizenship in future. Due to this they wouldn't issue the daughter a UK visa. What she did get issued in her Chinese passport is a 5-year "right to abode" for the UK. With this she can come and go as she pleases to the UK. They didn't get her a British passport yet due to the difficulties of holding two passports.

We had a baby boy about a week ago in Yunnan Women and Children Hospital.

When we were checking out with the baby, my wife asked the clerk whether we could have both Chinese and foreign name on the birth certificate.

She couldn't answer, and called her superiors (I believe not in same hospital).

Answer was, the we can only have one name on the certificate - Chinese name if we intend for him to have Chinese passport, or foreign name if we intend to get foreign passport.

Branded at birth. They don't miss a trick.

@hotwater
Too late for my son, but a useful alternative method. Thanks.