Will at Imagethief delves into the red tape of having an “illegal child”:

There were some things that I anticipated. In my mind I had a pretty clear idea of the set of bureaucratic steps we’d need to go through for Imagethief Jr., a.k.a. “Z”. 1) Apply for passports (Z is a dual citizen so there are two passports). 2) Apply for visa. 3) Apply for certificate of temporary residency. Simple. Easy. Logical.

And missing one critical step. I didn’t know that I’d have to actually register Z’s birth separately with the Chaoyang District police. After all, it wasn’t like I’d bought a weapon or imported an exotic car. It’s a baby, fer chrissake. The only things he’s a threat to are diapers, teething rusks and the sleeping habits of his parents. …

‘As a foreigner are legally required to report the birth of your baby to the police within thirty days. Your baby is seventy-seven days old. That means he has been illegal for forty-seven days.’

Wet nurses are making a comeback:

“As news spread of the deadly taint of the industrial chemical melamine in China’s milk supply last week, new father Jimandy Wu approached his wife with a business proposition: She could become a nai ma, or wet nurse. He had read on the Internet about the practice, in which a woman feeds her own breast milk to someone else’s child.

Security staff kept order as families with children undergoing checks for possible kidney stones waited their turn at a hospital in Chongqing municipality.

‘Why not,’ says his 24-year-old wife, Tina Huang, a mother in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen who says she produces more milk than her own 2-month-old baby can use. ‘It’s a pity that I waste my breast milk when I see on TV so many kids with no milk to drink because of the contaminated powder.’

Ms. Huang’s old job as a secretary paid just 1,000 yuan ($146) a month. The 12,000 yuan she will earn each month as a wet nurse will ‘buy some good clothes for our daughter, and send her to a better kindergarten,’ says Mr. Wu.

As Chinese parents panic about the tainted milk — which authorities now admit began in late 2007 — that has killed four and sickened more than 53,000 children, the fallout is breathing new life into an ancient profession. Wages for Chinese wet nurses, who post online ads and sign up at housework agencies around the country, have doubled since the milk crisis began on Sept. 12. They now run as high as 18,000 yuan a month.”

“The thirty-five-year-old father has no choice but to lock his son up with an iron chain beside the window, which has been going on for three years.”