Village full of people that doesn't exist

I watched a news item which made me smile.

It seems a country village in China provoked the wrath of the authorities. The government took their village and drowned it for a new reservoir and the locals complained the compensation was miserly and ridiculous so they rebuilt their homes and small-holdings. Their former homes are now the centre for the water supply for the nearest big city and they have no running water so take it from the reservoir (!). With the electricity gone the villagers put in solar power for lighting. But things have got worse for them as they have been removed from maps and officially the village is not to be recognised. One woman who gave birth is not allowed a birth certificate so in time cannot go to school nor get a job. No-one has any rights at all nor apply for anything as officially they don't exist.

Sounds like Grand Rapids.

Here is a link to the BBC story he couldn't be arsed to include. Must be out of habit since the summary is pretty much accurate for a change.

Odd. If the flooding was only 'over a decade ago', how come the mother doesn't have a birth certificate either?

Originally posted by johnnysaucepn:

Odd. If the flooding was only 'over a decade ago', how come the mother doesn't have a birth certificate either?

Or any papers at all:

Originally posted by BBC:

None of the dozens of families in Blue Dragon village has official ID cards required for social services, and to travel and work around the country.

And why should I need to provide a link to a hardly world shattering but amusing incident for nit-picking Macallans of the world?

Originally posted by rjhowie:

And why should I need to provide a link to a hardly world shattering but amusing incident for nit-picking Macallans of the world?

I could explain it to you ( again ) but I don't see a reason to assume you would understand this time around.

Originally posted by johnnysaucepn:

Odd. If the flooding was only 'over a decade ago', how come the mother doesn't have a birth certificate either?

We're talking about a part of the world where you can't move, buy or sell anything, or even have much beyond bare existence unless your paperwork is in order. By eliminating all the records for everyone in the village, the Chinese government is able to make every person in that village as if they had never been born. On paper, they don't exist so in that society, they don't exist.

It works great if you're a member of MIB, but for anybody else it kinda makes life impossible.

Still beats the older method of making people actually not exist anymore.

Of course I wouldn't want to fathom your self-opiniated mind dear boy macallan.

Originally posted by mjmsprt40:

We're talking about a part of the world where you can't move, buy or sell anything, or even have much beyond bare existence unless your paperwork is in order. By eliminating all the records for everyone in the village, the Chinese government is able to make every person in that village as if they had never been born. On paper, they don't exist so in that society, they don't exist.

Fair enough. The article didn't say anything about deleting existing records, so I had assumed that they had just refused to process new citizens.

Originally posted by johnnysaucepn:

Originally posted by mjmsprt40:

We're talking about a part of the world where you can't move, buy or sell anything, or even have much beyond bare existence unless your paperwork is in order. By eliminating all the records for everyone in the village, the Chinese government is able to make every person in that village as if they had never been born. On paper, they don't exist so in that society, they don't exist.

Fair enough. The article didn't say anything about deleting existing records, so I had assumed that they had just refused to process new citizens.

... or taking existing papers away. "They don't (officially) exist because they didn't move exactly where they were told to move to" doesn't seem to fly, there's something missing here.
Maybe, just maybe, this will help rjhowie to understand why sources are important.

Another exposition of grumpy self-importance.

Oh, Harbin. Been there. If this city had been on the other side of the Black Dragon River (Heilongjiang) it would have been in Siberia.

Originally posted by mjmsprt40:

We're talking about a part of the world where you can't move, buy or sell anything, or even have much beyond bare existence unless your paperwork is in order. By eliminating all the records for everyone in the village, the Chinese government is able to make every person in that village as if they had never been born. On paper, they don't exist so in that society, they don't exist.

It works great if you're a member of MIB, but for anybody else it kinda makes life impossible.

You can do surprisingly much without papers, most do, but managing without an ID card would be hard. Provinces vary widely in China, but the ID card is national and universal. If you want to do official business you need it.

The BBC journalist was lazy in explaining the situation but I guess this is essentially a story about hukou 户口, registered place of origin. This system tries but fails to restrict mobility, if you work and live another place than your hukou you are a migrant worker with few rights, pretty much like in Europe or the US, only there are more of them here. If you have no hukou at all, you'd be in trouble.

The ID card has 20 years validity, at least for adults. The mother must have been unlucky with her timing not to have a valid one.