Residence permits to replace hukou
The central government has decided to adopt a residence permit system nationwide as a step forward in the reform of hukou, the household registration system that has prevented rural residents enjoying the same social welfare benefits as their urban counterparts.
Though some local governments have introduced residence permits, which give migrants access to basic services in cities, the State Council set out guidelines extending the system to all cities for the first time.
In a document on deepening economic reforms released on Monday, the State Council proposed gradually implementing a system of residence permits nationwide and easing hukou requirements in small and medium cities.
The latest proposal followed Premier Wen Jiabao's promise to push forward hukou reform in his annual work report in March and came just a day before Vice-Premier Li Keqiang published an article vowing to classify more farmers as urban residents.
In his article - published yesterday in Seeking Truth, the Communist Party's publication focusing on theory - Li says a priority of urbanisation is to group rural residents who satisfy certain requirements as urban residents. 'To those who currently can't have their hukou transferred to cities, efforts should be made to solve their problems regarding employment, salaries, education of their children and social securities,' he wrote.
Adopted in the late 1950s to control population movement, the hukou system has faced increasing criticism as many see it as the root cause of a widening rural-urban wealth gap because it is tied to social benefits, such as housing, education and health care. It has also become an obstacle to domestic spending as the government endeavours to shift from exports to domestic consumption to further economic growth.
Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor at Renmin University, said the introduction of a national residence permit system was a prelude to the cancellation of the reviled hukou, though it would take a long time.
He said the hukou documents called 'resident identity cards' imply that people were tied to particular places of residence. In the future, this will be changed to 'citizen identity card', which would separate the holder's residence from his identity and thus entitle him to move about freely. 'Residence permits are a transition, and I see it as great progress,' he said.
The issue of hukou reform has been repeated in the central government's documents in the past three years but has seen small leaps.
In 2007, it suggested exploring a household management system that is consistent for both rural and urban populations. The Ministry of Public Security spearheaded these tasks. In 2008, it said farmers who met certain standards would be allowed to have their hukou in urban areas. Last year, it proposed improving services for migrants, and encouraged innovation in the management system.
This year's measures to make residence permits nationwide involve not only the Ministry of Public Security, but also the ministries of Finance, Land Resources, Agriculture, and Human Resources and Social Security.
Residence permits are being implemented in 10 cities - Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Dongguan in Guangdong; Shanghai, Cixi and Jiaxing in Zhejiang ; Taiyuan in Shanxi ; Dalian in Liaoning ; and Changchun in Jilin .
With such permits, migrants can enjoy the same social security benefits as urban residents. They can apply for hukou after holding the permits for a number of years, and if they meet requirements including having no criminal record, obeying the one-child policy and paying taxes and social insurance on time. Taiyuan has the shortest time limit, five years, and Shenzhen has the longest, 10.
