Police officers in Shanghai became aware of the father’s illegal efforts to secure Chinese citizenship for his daughter when they reassessed the paperwork. Photo: Handout
Source:
https://scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2183185/shanghai-father-who-faked-hong-kong-girls-birth-certificate-get People & Culture
Shanghai father who faked Hong Kong girl’s birth certificate to get her Chinese citizenship is jailed
- Court heard that defendant wanted his daughter to inherit his Shanghai properties
- Identification papers ruse was intended to get around state regulations
A man from Shanghai surnamed Gao was jailed for an attempt to acquire a Chinese passport for his daughter to ease her inheritance of his property. The girl took her citizenship from her mother, a foreign national of Chinese origin. Photo: Handout
A man from Shanghai has been jailed for two months for forging the birth certificate of his daughter to get a Chinese passport for her.
The man, identified as Gao by local media, married a foreign national of Chinese origin. In 2013, when their daughter was born, she took her mother’s nationality, Shanghai-based news portal Kankanews.com said. The citizenship of mother and daughter, who live in Hong Kong, was not made clear at trial.
As China has banned dual citizenship, the girl would need mainland Chinese papers through her father to qualify for citizenship.
Gao, whose occupation and age were not made public, said he wanted his daughter to inherit his Shanghai properties. Foreign citizens face high bureaucratic hurdles to Chinese inheritances.
In July, Gao used an agent to forge a birth certificate issued by Shanxi province and a paternity test document from Shanxi’s justice department.
In Shanghai, Gao used the fakes to apply for her permanent residence in China. He succeeded, securing citizenship for his daughter.
In November, as part of a routine documents check, police found the papers Gao had presented were forged and the stamps on them were counterfeit. Gao was arrested, tried, convicted, jailed for 70 days and fined 2,000 yuan (US$295). It was not clear if the agent was prosecuted.
Liu Xiao, a prosecutor from Shanghai’s Changning district, told the news website that activities involving forging documents and stamps and fake identities were serious crimes.