Beijing Hukou Reform - Is It Enough?
By Dominique Wong
Getting a Beijing hukou in the future may be easy as 1, 2, 3…. 4, 5, 6, 7. Seven years of paid social security payments, that is. Oh, and if you’re nearing the age of 45, don’t even think about it. Did we say ‘easy’?
On December 10, Beijing authorities announced plans to introduce a points system for granting permanent resident status to migrants – similar to those already adopted in Shanghai and Guangzhou – and the reaction has been mixed.
If passed, the system will allow migrants the chance to obtain a much-coveted – but difficult to obtain – household registration that gives the holder access to a range of welfare and social services. Currently, the annual quota is largely made up of employees of government agencies or state-owned enterprises. The system appears to place lower-skilled workers at a disadvantage and has the potential to raise the cost of living for everyone in the long run as a result.
The new draft plan has outlined a scoring system whereby a hukou can be obtained if certain criteria are fulfilled. At the very least, applicants have to be under 45 years old, already hold a Beijing temporary residency permit and have paid social security payments in the city for at least seven consecutive years.
In other words, the bar is set pretty high. The system favors those with more education (applicants holding bachelor’s degrees are awarded 15 points, while a master’s degree receives 27 points and a doctorate 39 points) and it benefits skilled workers in certain sectors, rather than migrant workers who are more likely to work on building sites and in other blue-collar positions. More than 81 percent of workers surveyed by China Youth Daily considered the threshold to be too great.
The recent announcement wasn’t unprecedented. There has been talk of – and some action towards – hukou reform for months. Since last July, the central government has spoken of plans to overhaul the system, so that a mix of people from different provinces are granted equal access to public services in the cities they work and reside in. The move would make sense, considering the need to increase labor mobility and domestic consumption.
The plans proposed by Beijing authorities don’t seem to align with this vision of wider access. As the Shanghai Institute of Finance of Law's Nie Riming tells Caixin: “The policy is at odds with what the central government wants to achieve because only a very few can benefit from the system.”
The timing of the latest announcement is revealing. The policy drafts were released three days after the Chinese Government broadcast its 13th Five Year Plan (2015-2020), which included aims of limiting the Beijing population to under 23 million. This has become a major priority, due to resource shortages and issues such as pollution and congestion. Read together, it seems that Beijing does welcome you, but only some of you, and only up to a point.
Other action is being made to counter crowding problems, seen by moves to make Tongzhou district a sub-administrative center (under the strategy of developing Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province into an integrated 130-million person megalopolis). In fact, policy draft states that applicants can accrue up to 12 points if they move to suburban districts in the city – not a bad incentive for hukou-hopefuls.
Overall, steps are being made to improve the hukou system and ensure greater access to welfare services for citizens. There will be more opportunity for people to gain a Beijing hukou. But as the municipal government is forced to balance competing concerns, it appears that something’s gotta give. And it may be the less privileged who miss out.
What do you think: is the hukou reform enough? Share your thoughts in the comment section below the article.
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