International Law

China?s Hukou System Under Fire

By Stan

Jamil Anderlini at the FT discusses a significant challenge to the hukou system:

A group of 13 Chinese newspapers from across the country carried an identical front-page editorial on Monday calling for the abolition of China?s household registration hukou system in a highly unusual co-ordinated critique of government policy.

In language that unmistakably evoked early 20th century Chinese revolutionary movements, the editorial referred to the hukou system as ?segregation? and ?unconstitutional? and ?the heavy invisible fetters placed on all citizens?.

[ . . . ]

In recent months the central government has publicly placed reform of the hukou system at the top of its agenda and the issue was already scheduled to be a big discussion topic at the political meetings that begin later this week.

In other words, this issue is being pushed in a major way. Lots of reasons not to like a system that hinders the free movement of people within a country, but there are competing interests here.

The balance here is between economic growth and personal freedom on the one hand, and social/political stability on the other. The system made some sense under a planned economy, where labor was tightly managed and social benefits (food, housing, health care) were all provided by the public at the place of work (specifically, your danwei).

So at the very least, it seems obvious that such a system doesn’t make sense for China’s modern economy that relies on a more dynamic labor sector. It’s probably not a coincidence that one of the hottest China news topics right now is the labor shortage at many South China export-oriented factories. Free movement of labor might help to mitigate such shortages, although from what I understand, the hukou system is not to blame for this particular shortage.

What’s more interesting is that so many complaints about the hukou system have absolutely nothing to do with labor and everything to do with education. China’s hyper-competitive educational system is well known, and when it is nearly impossible to get into the “best” kindergarten even when you are a local resident, imagine how frustrating it must be for parents who don’t even have the option to easily move to another locality to take advantage of the better schools.

This is not something to be taken lightly. My parents moved from LA County to Orange County (Southern California) back in ‘69 for no other reason but that the schools were better. These decisions are freakin’ important, and when you take the One Child Policy into account, you can see that a tremendous amount of political pressure could be generated to lobby for a change of policy.

One last issue. When such a control system is in place, which in many instances creates “haves” and “have nots,” with respect to scarce resources like top-quality educational institutions, there is the danger of corruption.

?The hukou system perpetuates highly discriminatory policies and social inequality; it violates China?s constitution and should be abolished,? [Professor] Hu [of Beijing Institute of Technology] told the Financial Times on Monday.

To the extent that the hukou system gives local officials the power to discriminate, to pick winners and losers, corruption naturally follows. Just another natural reason for the Central Government, which has been fighting a long-standing war against local corruption, to get onboard with hukou reform.

One note of caution. These reforms have been requested in the past, and we’re still waiting. Maybe the time is right or maybe not. While there certainly seems to be a movement afoot, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if something minor was done to placate critics for the time being, with more meaningful reform to follow at some point in the unspecified future.

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Post tags: China Law, household registration system, hukou, labor shortage

Full post as published by China Hearsay on March 01, 2010 (boomark / email).