Henan to Use Same Compensation Standards for Urban Residents, Qualified Migrants

August 31, 2006

The Henan High People's Court (HPC) issued an opinion in June that requires courts to use urban compensation standards for personal injury cases involving qualified rural migrants living in cities, according to a June 23 Xinhua article (in Chinese). Article 15 of the opinion provides that compensation for injured rural migrants who have a "regular place of residence in the city" and whose "main source of income is earned in the city" must be calculated using the same standards as for urban residents.

The Henan High People's Court (HPC) issued an opinion in June that requires courts to use urban compensation standards for personal injury cases involving qualified rural migrants living in cities, according to a June 23 Xinhua article (in Chinese). Article 15 of the opinion provides that compensation for injured rural migrants who have a "regular place of residence in the city" and whose "main source of income is earned in the city" must be calculated using the same standards as for urban residents.

The Henan HPC opinion seeks to address discrimination suffered by rural migrants who have resided for many years in urban areas but who lack local hukou (household registration) in their urban place of residence. Article 29 of the 2003 Supreme People's Court's Judicial Interpretation Regarding Compensation Cases for Personal Injuries says that courts must set compensation for deaths in personal injury cases at 20 times "the per capita annual disposable income of urban residents or the per capita net income of rural residents in the jurisdiction where the case is heard." These two measures differ substantially. For example, the national per capita annual disposable income of urban residents was 9,422 yuan in 2005, while the national per capita annual net income of rural residents was 2,936 yuan, according to the Chinese government's 2005 Work Report. Courts and parties to personal injury disputes have applied this standard to cases in both Chongqing municipality and Hunan province to reduce the amount of compensation awarded to the families of migrants injured or killed in accidents who lack local hukou despite having resided in urban areas for long periods of time. The Henan HPC opinion would allow at least those families and victims who meet the designated criteria of a "regular place of residence in the city" and a "main source of income is earned in the city" to be compensated for injuries using the same standards applied to urban hukou holders.

Other courts and legislative bodies are considering directives similar to the Henan HPC opinion. The Supreme People's Court is currently accepting suggestions for a new judicial interpretation on compensation for accidental injury and death, according to a July 5 Workers Daily report, posted on the China Legislative Information Network System Web site (in Chinese). The Anhui High People's Court has issued rules stipulating that injury or death compensation for minors who hold a rural hukou but attend school and live in urban areas shall be computed using the urban standard, according to an April 21 Sichuan Daily article (in Chinese). The Guangxi regional government's Legislative Affairs Office (LAO) is considering new legislation on accidental injury and death compensation, according to a June 21 Xinhua report (in Chinese). The Guangxi LAO is deliberating whether or not to apply urban compensation standards for all who are injured or killed in traffic accidents, or whether to limit urban compensation amounts to urban residents and rural residents who have lived in urban areas for one or more years and have a "stable place of residence." The Chongqing High People's Court is currently soliciting comments on a draft guiding opinion that stipulates that rural hukou holders who are disabled or killed in a traffic accident may be compensated according to urban standards if they meet certain criteria on income, ownership of housing, or length of residence in an urban area, according to a June 23 Xinhua article (in Chinese).

Local Chinese authorities have announced a series of limited hukou reforms in recent months. In June, the Henan provincial government announced that it would implement a pilot program abolishing agricultural hukou in seven cities, according to a June 20 Xinhua article (in Chinese). In May, Zhejiang provincial Party and government officials announced that they would attempt to abolish distinctions between agricultural and non-agricultural hukou by the end of 2007, according to a May 5 Beijing News article (in Chinese). Xi'an municipal authorities launched a three-year program on January 1, 2006, to abolish distinctions between agricultural and non-agricultural hukou, according to a March 7 Beijing News article (in Chinese). The Xi'an reforms also call for the implementation of an "access system" that will determine who may obtain a local hukou, based on whether or not a person has a "lawful and stable place of residence" and "lawful and stable profession." Recent reforms to abolish agricultural/non-agricultural hukou distinctions are limited in nature. They do not abolish hukou identification entirely. Migrants must still obtain local hukou in a given urban area to receive public services such as healthcare and education for their children on an equal basis with other residents. But since many local governments have set stringent economic criteria for qualifying for local hukou, poor migrants may reside in urban areas for many years but be unable to obtain a local hukou or urban public services.

For more information, see the Commission's 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 roundtable on hukou reform.