Q: China has the largest population in the world. With
such a large population, how does China manage household
registration? As the reform and opening-up policy is deeply
implemented, what reform of household registration is being carried
out?
A: Household registration (also called civil registration in
foreign countries) is one of the basic social management mechanisms
in all countries. China makes no exception. It manages its
population of about 1.3 billion mainly through the household
registration mechanism.
The present household registration system was established in
1958. Although somewhat similar to mechanisms in foreign countries,
it follows a quite different method of management. In China, people
are divided into two categories: non-agricultural households, which
mainly refer to people in cities and counties and account for about
30 percent of the country's total population, and agricultural
households, which refer to people in places other than urban areas
and account for 70 percent of the total population. Different
management of the two categories of households divides the urban
population and rural population, leading to artificial disparity
and unfairness between urban and rural areas and between different
regions. Under such a household registration management system,
quotas strictly restrain the moving of household registration and
it is very difficult for rural households to be transferred to
urban ones. This can be realized only by studying in universities,
joining the army, or being recruited by factories in urban areas.
All of this influences the normal migration of citizens to a
certain extent.
In more than 20 years of development of the market economy, more
and more rural residents have moved to cities. Estimates are that
the floating population in China has reached 140 million, only 50
million of whom are registered as temporary residents in urban
areas. Hence, the intrinsic household registration system did not
conform to the requirements of reform and opening up, with a
rapidly increasing floating population.
Therefore, China launched household registration reform in small
towns beginning in 2001, gradually relaxing restrictions on
farmers' migration to cities. After that, most provinces and
cities, except Beijing, Shanghai and other large cities, joined the
comprehensive reform of the household registration system with the
aim of replacing the quota system with an access system in order to
gradually relax restrictions and establish a unitary household
registration system with the basic registration condition of having
legal and fixed domiciles, stable professions or sources of
livelihood.
Of course, because of the country's large population, China's
reform of the household registration system has taken place in
progression. If all restrictions on migration were lifted at the
same time, cities, especially large and medium-sized cities, would
face severe pressure in terms of public facilities, health care,
employment and education. However, China is still actively
advancing reform of its household registration system and speeding
up the drafting of the Law of Household Registration in order to
make the new system more suitable to the management of population
movement and to secure the rights of equality and freedom for all
Chinese citizens.