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

Zhao Yang: Third, you may have noticed that the guideline explicitly stated that giving up the “three rights” should not be the precondition of transferring a peasant’s hukou to urban areas at the present state. The emphasis on the present stage is based on scientific judgment on the economic development level and maturity of society of our country, though we should have sufficient patience and determination to keep pushing forward this prolonged historical process. I believe the institutional arrangement and related laws on the “three rights” will be adjusted some day for further demand on equalization with the development of social economy and improving of public service. Thank you. 2014-07-30 11:58:29

CCTV: You have talked about the goals and measures of the household registration reform, which is a hot point in society. My question is what kind of difficulties are you expecting to encounter in the reform process? How do you cope with these difficulties? Thank you. 2014-07-30 12:00:30

Huang Ming: Thank you for your question. The household registration reform is indeed facing some difficulties, since the reform is a complex systematic project, a basic system with which a slight move in one part may affect the situation as a whole. The specific difficulties are as follows. The first is that it is difficult to counter-balance the situation with such an enormous population, huge rural-urban development gap, regional inequality, and disparity between large and small cities.

Second, it is difficult to separate the social welfare that has been connected to the household registration system for decades. It would have been easy to reform the registration system itself but for the benefit package bundled with it.

Third, it is difficult to coordinate the various interests of different groups. Just like you have repeatedly asked questions about Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but it is impossible to meet the needs of all who wish to live in these cities.

So all these difficulties add to the arduousness, complexity and persistence of the hukou reform. In order to cope with these difficulties and smooth our reform, we need to stick to the four principles set by the guideline, which has been distributed to you. So, how do we stick to the principles? We should move actively and steadily in a standardized and orderly way. The operation should be active as well as safe and solid. We should act according to our abilities, give priority to those who are already living in the cities, guide people’s orderly inflow and rational expectations, and avoid blind mass action. Also, we should stick to the people-oriented principle and respect people’s will. As we have often argued, the agricultural population makes their own decisions on whether they move into the cities, and when and where. We should never force them to transfer their hukou to urban areas. Again, we should keep adjusting our measures according to circumstances by letting local authorities implement the central authority’s policy and publish their own hukou policy according to varied situation. We should leave room for the local governments, instead of assigning quotas and putting pressure on them. In addition, we should keep on providing supportive measures and basic security, which means we should continue to expand the coverage of basic public services from registered local residents to those who are working and living in one place without hukou. Thank you. 2014-07-30 12:00:48

Phoenix Satellite Television: I have two questions for Vice-Minister Huang Ming. The first is that will the new residence permit system replace the current temporary residence permit system? Second, although the press conference is to brief the household registration system reform, we are concerned about another incident directly related to the Ministry of Public Security – the terrorist attack in Kashgar. Would you please update us with the latest development? 2014-07-30 12:01:18