Bao Suixian, deputy director of the Public Security Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security, made the announcement at a briefing held by the ministry.

Chinese citizens who have a fixed place of abode and a stable income will have their regular residential status registered in local police offices, he said, stressing this is the goal of the residence registration reform.

The unified residential registration system will cover both urban and rural areas and will eventually replace the two different registration regulations now in operation.

At present, Chinese citizens are divided into two categories in most parts of the country in terms of residence registration, namely, "agriculture residence" and "non-agriculture residence".

Late last year, several provinces such as Jilin, Hunan, Guangdong, Fujian and Liaoning, abolished these divisions.

Bao said that the second generation citizen's card will be issued soon and the study on enacting a law on residence registration is under way.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2002)