Forums > Living in Kunming > Renouncing Child's citizenship @redjon
Many people travel with dual citizenship and dual passports. It is not illegal and rather typical in the EU, Canada, Australia, and especially Hong Kong, and becoming more frequent in China - especially since China somewhat relaxed its one-child policy for the Han-race minority (other recognized and designated minorities in China are not restricted by the one-child policy).
These are the simple steps to traveling with dual nationality passports. This assumes your child has both a Chinese AND a UK passport already, as I'm not familiar with entering / exiting China without a passport, even for babies.
ENTRY/EXIT CHINA
Upon entry/exit China, use China travel documents.
ENTRY/EXIT UK
Upon entry/exit UK, use your UK travel documents.
Rarely do immigration officials check WHERE you came from if you use that country's passport. If you're asked, just present the other passport, which shows entry/exit stamps. As you're traveling with a child on your UK passport and your child's Chinese passport, you should expect them to scrutinize both the entry and exit carefully, because of the issues of child trafficking and child kidnapping. If the immigration officer asks where you came from and the passport has no record of that exit - you'll need to show the second passport for proof.
If asked why you're entering the country with that country's passport - just tell them it's the law for dual citizenship holders.
There is nothing illegal about traveling with dual nationality passports, unless one of your home countries specifically has laws against that. It MAY raise eyebrows in third world countries (too many spy movies), but in most developed countries - this is not unusual; not pervasive, but not unusual.
As long as you're forthcoming in your answers - you should have no issues traveling with your child.
FYI - in the USA - even if/when our child is/was a baby, we were required to secure children's passports when traveling.
Children's passports expire every FIVE (5) years and the USA recently stopped its program of "adding pages" to passports, so we always get the "extra pages" passports, at no additional cost (adding pages used to cost us USD 80+, while a new passport was USD 105).
Finally - and not related to this thread - if your child was born in a foreign country and you secured a US Consulate/Embassy Report of Birth Abroad as a "birth certificate" AND you bring your kids to China under the US passport - the US State Department will NOT authenticate your children's birth certificates.
If you have this issue, PM me and I'll tell you how to legally resolve this issue, bypassing the US State Department's bizarre policy (since 2012). If more than one person PM's me - I'll just start another thread.
Interview: Brian Eyler on Baihetan, China's second largest dam
Posted byFirst - excellent and informative article. Although I absolutely must concur with some of the views of the expert - the facts are always not so obvious, when one chooses to micro-focus on subsystems as opposed to expanding one's view to a larger system. This is a popular management trend called decision-based data as opposed to data-driven decisions. So agreement, disagreement, or no opinion - depends on one's perspective.
Most westerners, especially those with hidden or obvious political agendas, look at China as they look at the west - a free market based economy.
China is a planned economy and certain infrastructures are built looking forwards decades.
China's energy consumption trajectory is not considered by the author, so let's take a look at that subjectively or qualitatively, since I'm too lazy to do the research numbers.
ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN KUNMING
Our hot water heaters used to be gas powered - but we had to replace the "damned" thing every two years because of the buildup of ash (aka toxins - seriously...green flecks in the ash - what is that? Chromium?) from the dirty gas. We switched to a combination of solar and electric (which do NOT work in tandem).
The prolific construction of new high-rises do not permit the effective use of solar in high density residential communities (e.g. most real estate development mega projects in Kunming are around the 2k residence level. So on demand electric systems make more sense.
COOKING
We haven't switched to electric because the power grid where we live simply won't handle the load (much less our ancient wiring). New high rise developments come with the option of gas or electric - with most choosing electric. It's fast, clean, and doesn't expose the stove components to cooking spillage. We've replaced our gas stove twice in the last 8 years - but to be fair - the last replacement was required because we switched to a new "cleaner" gas.
E-BIKES
Prolific.
MASS TRANSIT
The subway - electric powered. Buses moving towards electric power. And automobiles - e-powered vehicles are an emerging phenomenon with incredibly central government support and subsidies. Occasionally, you'll spot that rare BYD electric powered taxi (the SUV). China is migrating as much as its domestic infrastructure off fossil fuel dependence as possible.
So just from our own personal experiences and observations - consumer-based consumption of electric services is increasing at a steady pace.
ENVIRONMENTAL
There is no argument about the destruction of surrounding habitats and the migration of valley dwellers. This is a management issue for the government as they strive for poverty elimination. A large part of China's poverty elimination program is focused on attracting rural workers to cities, with jobs, education, and the ever upwardly mobile opportunities that education can provide - hence that insane construction pace. Kunming is planned to grow to a size of 10 million (but don't know the date on that plan).
Last time I checked - the city is at about 6.6 million, so we have another 3.4 million to go - so those 2000 unit mega developments (assume a family size of 4) housing up to 4 people, not including grandparents, in-laws, and others - 8k per development. That means ROUGHLY we'll need another 425 real estate development projects to house those 3.4 million additional residents.
That's another 850k families (3.4 mil/4,assuming a family unit of 4) consuming energy, services, infrastructure, e-bikes, cooking, water, toilet flushing, etc etc etc.
And that's JUST Kunming - there are 15 other prefectural level cities with supposed urban sprawl magnet program requirements as part of the nation's poverty elimination strategies.
So the author points out the displacement of a few thousand to a few hundred thousand people. Cast that against 3.4 million and things perhaps aren't quite as obvious - and again, that is ONLY based on Kunming plans. As we all noticed with the formerly famous and internationally maligned Chenggong ghost city (not so ghostly anymore), planned economies can be sustainably successful. And we didn't even discuss all the government (schools, 2 fly toilets, etc) and commercial infrastructures (restaurants, businesses, etc ad infinitum) that spawn from those residential communities. And we haven't even begun to address the energy sucking behavior of the internet and all its derivative industries - data centers, cloud computing centers, distributed corporate IT migration strategies.
Easy to criticize a microscopic spot than to manage the mega complicated system that is China.
However - that said - the author's points ARE valid and we do need alternate perspectives, so we understand the cost/benefit trade-off more responsibly.
And...I'll just get off that soapbox now...
Film Review: Paths of the Soul
Posted byI'm thinking that's a pretty aerobic pilgrimage...
Editorial: Hydro expansion will fail without energy market reform
Posted byum...yes - I actually meant central Asia - neighboring countries closer than say Shanghai, that would appreciate energy and be willing (maybe) to pay competitive rates for it (as opposed to just dumping the power potential).
Editorial: Hydro expansion will fail without energy market reform
Posted byChina is ramping up the use of e-vehhicles - which should take some of the capacity. I'm also wondering about whether we're exporting power to SE asia, which would seem to be an excellent market, and to the middle east where they DEFINITELY need power along the OBOR (one belt, one road).
1920s China through the lens of Joseph Rock: Simao
Posted byI'm thinking his romanizations can be forgiven, given that putonghua was not standard and he's probably hearing a variety of dialectic Kunming hua and the incredibly diverse minority languages and dialects, when the locals or guides provide descriptions of various names and places, not to mention the various linguistic eccentricities of the various european missionaries.