Local Governments Resist Reforms to Household Registration System

Ministry of Public Security (MPS) sources say that national plans for reform of China's hukou (household registration) system that were announced in October have encountered resistance from some ministries and local governments, according to a November 21 report in Outlook Weekly magazine. Lu Hongyan, Deputy Director of the MPS General Office, said that hukou reform "is not entirely within the power or responsibility of the MPS" and that issues that affect the work of local governments require coordination with them, according to a November 24 China Economic Net article. The MPS is attempting to coordinate with local governments and other ministries to present a hukou reform program by late December 2005 or early 2006.

Lu noted that many cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, require individuals to have a local hukou to receive a number of public services, and that this requirement complicates central government reform efforts. Government employment in Beijing requires an individual to possess a local Beijing hukou, according to the Outlook Weekly report. Students without a Beijing hukou must pay 20-30,000 yuan in additional schooling fees. Beijing authorities link possession of a local hukou to obtaining social security payments and low-interest loans for housing. Local governments sometimes resist hukou reforms to avoid providing services and opportunities to migrants on an equal basis with established urban residents.

The MPS sources cited by the Outlook Weekly say that the national reform plans seek to synthesize recent local government experiments, expanding them throughout China. Both the Outlook Weekly and China Economic Net articles, however, cite scholarly criticism that existing local hukou reforms are symbolic rather than substantive. Hu Xingdou, an economics professor at the Beijing University of Science and Engineering, says that current reforms that would eliminate the distinction between "agricultural" and "non-agricultural" hukous have progressed relatively smoothly, according to the China Economic Net article. Nevertheless, these reforms have "have not involved substantive content" because they have not allowed migrants equal rights to public services, according to Professor Hu.

Hukou registration has two independent components: a distinction between agricultural and non-agricultural hukou, and a local/non-local distinction. Reforms that abolish the former do not necessarily affect the latter. Migrants must obtain local hukou in urban areas to receive public services and benefits on an equal basis with other urban residents.

For more information on the Chinese hukou system and related reforms, see the Commission's recent topic paper on the subject, the chart of various national and provincial hukou reforms through the end of 2004 on the Freedom of Residence page of the Commission's Web site, the Commission's 2004 and 2005 Annual Reports, and the Commission's recent roundtable on hukou reform.