Reforms to Household Registration System Under Consideration

Public Security Vice Minister Liu Jinguo told an intergovernmental working group on migrant issues in late October that the government is considering national reforms to China's household registration (hukou) system, according to an October 26 Legal Daily article. Liu did not say, however, when the reforms would be adopted or implemented. Liu is the latest in a series of government officials to raise the subject of hukou reform since the Communist Party plenum concluded in October.

Liu said that local governments should (1) take migrant interests into consideration in the drafting of local development plans; (2) make serious efforts to address migrant housing, education, and health care needs; and (3) strive over time for equality in job opportunities between urban and rural workers. Liu also said that public security officials currently are studying hukou reform proposals aimed at eliminating the distinction between agricultural and non-agricultural hukou types. Public security officials in 11 provinces have already adopted similar reforms, according to an October 28 Xinhua article.

Vice Minister Liu's speech suggests that the government may undertake a limited degree of hukou reform, but most likely does not signal the abolition of all hukou restrictions. Some Chinese and U.S. news media have characterized the provincial reforms as eliminating all legal distinctions between urban and rural residents, but this characterization is incorrect. Chinese hukou registration has two independent components: an agricultural/non-agricultural distinction, and a local/non-local distinction. Abolition of the former does not affect the latter. Chinese migrants must obtain local hukou in urban areas in order to receive social services and benefits on an equal basis with other urban residents. Reforms that only eliminate the distinction between agricultural and non-agricultural hukou neither abolish the local/non-local distinction nor eliminate the hukou system entirely. For more information, see the Commission's topic paper (HTML, PDF) on the Chinese hukou system and recent government reforms.

Vice Minister Liu also said that Chinese authorities will provide relaxed treatment only to those migrants who possess a "legal, stable place of residence," according to the October 26 Legal Daily article. Some authorities have used strict interpretations of similar economic criteria to limit the ability of low-income migrants to acquire local hukou and receive urban social services.

Publicly available details of the reform plans appear generally consistent with the periodic bursts of hukou reform activity that Chinese national and provincial authorities have conducted over the past several years. Vice Minister Liu's statements may indicate that Chinese authorities have decided to restart these reform efforts. For more information, see the chart of various national and provincial hukou reforms through the end of 2004 on the Freedom and 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.