International Law

One More Nail in the Hukou Coffin

By Stan

From China Briefing:

China’s State Council has announced that it will abolish the permanent residency requirement, or hukou,  to allow job seekers to move easily between cities and alleviate unemployment.

I’ve been predicting the demise of the hukou system for years now. It’ll happen, really. When did I ever lie to you?

Before you get too excited about this news, though, note that the new regs do not apply to Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Tianjin. You know, where all the jobs are.

Anyway, it’s a good move in light of the zillions of unemployed graduates floating around the country. Gotta do something before the Net cafes become deluged. All those kids with nothing to do but eat chips, drink Red Bull, play WoW, and resent the establishment — it’s a grim time to be alive, folks.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on February 17, 2009 (boomark / email).