Shanghai U-turn after outcry over revoking residency rights
City proposed removing the household registration of people with permanent residency overseas, but has ditched the plan admitting national guidelines unclear
Shanghai has dropped controversial plans to revoke the residency rights of people who also have permanent residency in countries overseas.
The proposals, announced earlier this month, ordered Shanghai residents who had “settled down abroad or obtained other nationalities” to report to the police to have their local household registration rights in the city revoked, a system known in Chinese as hukou.
The Shanghai permanent residency management rule, which was to be enforced from May 1, stated that those who did not voluntarily revoke their hukou within a month of being told to do so would have their household registration forcibly terminated.
The move drew heated debate among residents as holding a hukou grants them a number of rights ranging from social welfare services to children’s admission into local schools. There was also anxiety across the nation as others feared the policy would eventually be expanded to other cities and provinces.
But in an abrupt U-turn on Sunday, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau said in a statement on its official social media account that it would not revoke residents’ hukou after all.