Could this be the end for China’s notorious household registration system?
- Senior public security official flags plan to register people and provide services to them where they live – and not where they are born
- Immense barriers remain to change the hukou system that has divided urban and rural residents since the 1950s
China is reviewing its decades-old household registration system to enable migrant workers to stay in cities as the country grapples with an ageing population and a shrinking workforce.
Sun Lijun, deputy minister of public security, said on Thursday that his ministry is considering changes in policy to make it easier for the migrant workers to become the urban residents.
But any changes to the system would not apply to congested the megacities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen that the authorities deem overpopulated, Sun said.
Under the “hukou” household registration system introduced the 1950s, Chinese people are classified as either rural or urban residents depending on where they were born.
Rural residents can enjoy certain land use rights but are not officially allowed to live in cities or have access to government services in those areas such as education and health care.
But as China’s economy developed, around 300 million rural residents migrated to cities to earn a living, putting the system under intense strain.