Freedom of Residence and Movement

Party scholars and government officials publicly raised the subject of reform of the Chinese hukou (household registration) system following the conclusion of the Communist Party plenary session on October 11. Restrictions linked to hukou identification often prevent rural migrants from obtaining social services in Chinese cities on an equal basis with other residents, as noted in a recent Commission topic paper. Economists from the Central Party School criticized the dual social structure created by existing hukou restrictions in a roundtable discussion with the 21st Century Business Herald published on October 17.

The State Council approved in principle on January 4 an amended draft of the Compulsory Education Law to ensure central and provincial government funding for compulsory education and to standardize collection of school fees, according to a January 4 Xinhua article. Students in poor rural areas will benefit from the new law first, and officials hope to implement free compulsory education nationwide by 2010, according to a February 2 Xinhua report.

China's hukou (household registration) system contributed to discrimination in the amount of compensation that rural and urban residents received in a personal injury case in Sichuan province, drawing criticism in a January 27 Xinhua article and a January 24 Procuratorial Daily article (in Chinese).

Shanghai public security officials detained several petitioners, including housing rights activist Liu Xinjuan, on January 16 and forcibly admitted Liu to psychiatric care at the Minhang District Beiqiao Psychiatric Hospital, according to a January 20 report by Human Rights in China (HRIC). The detentions took place when Liu and others met to petition before the Shanghai People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, both in session on that date. The HRIC report notes that public security officials took Liu into custody and transported her first to the Qibao Township Dispatch Station and then to the Beiqiao Psychiatric Hospital, both in Shanghai's Minhang district.

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.

Public security officers in Henan and Guangdong provinces detained two foreign journalists to prevent them from reporting on politically sensitive stories. The first incident occurred December 7 near Shanwei in Guangdong province, when a reporter from Hong Kong's TVB tried to enter Dongzhoukeng village to investigate reports of clashes between local residents and the government over property rights, according to a December 8 Radio Free Asia report. Chinese authorities detained the reporter, forced him to write a self-criticism, and would not allow him to enter the township.

The State Council Working Committee on AIDS Prevention and Treatment reported that the number of confirmed HIV/AIDS carriers in China has risen to more than 130,000, according to the transcript of a November 29 teleconference posted on the National Population and Family Planning Commission Web site. That number accounts for only about 16 percent of the total estimated HIV/AIDS cases in the country, according to comments made by Vice Premier Wu Yi during the teleconference.

Migrant labor is in short supply in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, according to a December 3 China Radio International article, affecting the local construction, smelting, and mining industries. More generally, low wages and harsh working conditions contributed to shortages of migrant labor throughout China in 2004, according to the analysis of scholar Mo Rong that appeared in a book entitled "An Analysis and Projection of China's Social Situation in 2005" [2005 nian: Zhongguo shehui xingshi fenxi yu yuce], (Beijing: Social Sciences Data Press, 2004), 260-272. These shortages may be increasing pressure on employers to pay greater attention to worker rights, according to testimony at a November 3 Commission roundtable, "Working Conditions in China: Just and Favorable?"