The Chinese Government will relax the system that has prevented
people from living outside their place of birth, but it will not
get rid of the decades-old household-registration hukou system, a
senior official with the Ministry of Public Security said
yesterday.
Bao Suixian, deputy director of the ministry's Public Security
Bureau, told a press conference in Beijing: "The
household-registration system is an important part of -- as well
the basis of -- the State administration."
Through resident registration, the system can help uphold citizens'
civil rights and can also provide basic information when the
government is drawing up national economic and social development
plans and arranging the rational distribution of the workforce,
according to Bao.
For public security departments, such a system plays a major
function in safeguarding public security and fighting against
crime, he added.
The current hukou system was introduced in 1951 and it divides
China's population into agricultural and non-agricultural
categories.
This was designed to meet the needs of a planned economy and
prevent the excessive growth of the urban population. It has been
shown to have accelerated the coherent development of Chinese
society and the country's economy, said Bao.
But, after decades of development, the two-tier system now fails to
reflect the real process of urbanization in the country and is
throttling the healthy development and rational flow of China's
labor market, said the official.
In
addition, the system's loopholes could not fully record all births,
deaths and changes in registration details among residents, and
this has affected the authenticity and effectiveness of vital
statistics, said Bao.
Such statistics provide fundamental data about the national economy
and social development.
Since the early 1980s, the nation has adopted many reforms on
population migration, which enable rural residents to settle in
towns more freely.
The reforms also introduced an identity-card system, speeded up the
development of small cities and towns and perfected the rural
household registration system, said the official.
The government will adjust its policies on the settlement of rural
residents in cities based on legal and permanent residence, stable
occupation or income, he stressed.
(China
Daily February 26, 2002)