The guidelines pave the way for a fairer system that eliminates discrimination against rural hukou holders by increasing their access to public services and welfare, but there are still some uncertainities about “urbanizing” farmers as city residents.

Scholars have welcomed reforms to China’s hukou (household registration) system proposed by the State Council on July 30, saying they mark a new step in China’s urbanization drive and will improve equality between urban and rural residents.

The hukou system classifies people as either rural or urban residents and determines whether they can access welfare and social services. It therefore has a key impact on people’s livelihoods.

Limitations of dual hukou system
Wu Xiaogang, a professor of social science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, has had a unique personal experience with China’s hukou system. Wu was born in a small village in Jiangsu Province in the 1970s. As one of the first electrical technicians in China, his father was granted an urban hukou. However, Wu, his mother and siblings each held a rural hukou.

As a rural hukou holder, Wu temporarily studied at a school affiliated to his father’s work unit during his childhood. He took his high school entrance examinations in the rural locality of his hukou and was ineligible to enroll at top urban high schools.

He was rejected from a technical secondary school because of different admission quotas for urban and rural students. He eventually had a chance to study at a high school and even went on to attend university, which shaped his destiny for the better.

Wu’s experience persuaded him to conduct in-depth research into the hukou system. “I have carried out empirical research on the hukou system, initially inspired by my earlier experience,” said Wu.

The current hukou system is based on laws enacted in 1958, which originally aimed to improve registration and population management. “It has gradually evolved into an urban-rural dual hukou system accompanied by differential regulations of resource and benefit allocation, limiting the free migration of population,” said Lu Yilong, deputy director of the

Center for Studies of Sociological Theory and Method at Renmin University of China.

The hukou system has historically played an active role in the establishment of China’s industrial system and the development of urbanization, as well as in maintaining public order and assisting population management. A historical and developing perspective is urged when looking at the issue. “However, it is undeniable that a virtual wall has been built, impeding the free mobility of people, money and material resources and partially resulting in the imbalance of regional social and economic development,” Lu said.

In order to further promote deepening reform of economic society, the guidelines clearly stress the establishment of a unified urban-rural hukou system. It symbolized the urban-rural dual hukou system enacted in China over more than half a century will leave the stage.

Benefits need to be stripped
Nowadays, guidelines have attracted great attention in social circles. Some Chinese scholars have hailed bright spots in the guidelines.

Zhang Zhanxin, a research fellow at the Institute of Population and Labor Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the establishment of a residence permit system is

a welcome reform. The guidelines urge the establishment and improvement of the basic public service mechanism linked with certain conditions including the period of residence.

“If the residence permit system can be carried out and the equalization of urban public service gradually comes true, fewer people will choose to live in megacities such as Beijing,” Zhang added.

Another proposed reform is to remove benefits attached to owning certain hukou. Lu claimed that the current system is a comprehensive and basic social management system. It may be difficult to achieve the goal of improving social governance and promoting social fairness and justice if just reforming the function of registration of the hukou system.

It is therefore necessary to implement some measures to strip benefits from the hukou system. For example, the guidelines emphasize that it is essential to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the rural floating and permanent populations. It is necessary to improve the rural property system, as well as expand coverage of basic public services, including compulsory education, employment service, basic endowment services, basic medical and health services and housing security.

In addition, the guidelines call for differential hukou policies should be implemented among cities of different scales. “It is conducive to promoting the gradient transfer of population,” said Zhong Jun, director of the Research Division of Economic and Social Construction at the School of Marxism at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, adding that it fully considers the different capacities of different regions and cities to prevent people flooding into big cities and promote coordinated development of cities.

Does the local government have the ability to provide sufficient, fair and rational public services? Shen Xinmin, director of the Research Center for Human Resources at South China Normal University in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, said that it is really significant to build a scientific and rational public finance-sharing mechanism due to the limited finances of some governments.

In addition, reforming the hukou system in megacities is another focal point concentrated by people. Lu said that the control of populations in megacities can be fundamentally achieved through the equal resource allocation, rational urban planning and the adjustment of economic structure.

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 630, August 6, 2014.
The Chinese link: http://sscp.cssn.cn/xkpd/xszx/gn/201408/t20140806_1280553.html

Translated by Chen Meina
Revised by Tom Fearon