The press conference on the State Council’s guideline on reform of China's household registration system

(en.nhfpc.gov.cn)

Updated: 2014-08-24

Economic Daily and www.ce.cn: The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed to remove hukou restrictions in towns and small cities, to gradually ease restrictions in small and medium-sized cities, to set reasonable conditions for settling in big cities, and to strictly control the population of mega-cities. How does the guideline illuminate this? How do local governments put the central authority’s decision into practice? Also, the guideline mentioned building a mechanism for tying transfer payments with transfer of agricultural population, would you release more details about this? 2014-07-30 10:08:32

Huang Ming: The answer concerns two aspects, one is about explicating the hukou policy, and the other is about fiscal policy. Now I will answer the first question.

The guideline issued by the State Council has explicated settle-down policies in small and medium-sized cities, big cities and mega-cities. That is, to carry out differentiated hukou policies that take consideration of the condition in small and medium-sized cities, big cities and towns, and the conditions of East, Central and West China, on the basis of their population size and overall carrying capacity. The general requirement is to lift as many restrictions as possible while keeping only the necessary controls.

We have barely set any threshold on people transferring their hukou to towns and small cities – anyone can transfer to a town and small city where they have fixed dwelling, including rented apartment. The medium-sized cities are basically open too – the low threshold includes fixed dwelling, legal and stable employment, waiting in lines according to the sequence of application, and willingness to transfer. As for large cities, we lowered the threshold for hukou transfer as much as possible. Those who have legal and stable jobs for a prescribed number of years, have fixed dwelling, and have been paying social insurance according to related regulations can transfer their hukou to cities populated by 1 million to 3 million people. For larger cities with 3 million to 5 million people, the requirements should be higher to control the scale and speed of hukou transfer so as to prevent rapid population growth. For mega-cities with more than 5 million people, the guideline requests them to strictly control the population by establishing a point system that helps build an open and transparent hukou transfer channel. In the mega-cities, especially those populated by over 10 million people, there is excessive demographic pressure. For example, the floating population increased by 400,000 to 500,000 every year on average in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in the past decade, bringing huge population pressure. Consequently, the policy of strictly controlling the population size of mega-cites is in line with the practical situation of these cities. 2014-07-30 10:09:13

Huang Ming: The guideline clearly pointed out to strictly control the demographic size of mega-cities. As for how to control, first, we should tighten the hukou transfer policy according to the practical situation of each city and formulate policies case by case. To legitimately solve the settling issues, we shall reform the current hukou policy; establish and perfect the point system for hukou transfer; and follow the principle of total size control, impartiality and transparency. Also, mega-cities should make their development orientations more scientific, accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading, disperse the economic function and other functions, guide migrants moving in and out, and streamline demographic structures. You may have noticed that some mega-cities like Beijing and Shanghai have adopted comprehensive measures to lead population flow, such as moving out some labor-intensive industries, or adjusting and dispersing some functions. The city of Beijing has put forward the goal of “keeping fitness and health,” behind which there is a comprehensive package of measures to control population.