Hukou Reform on the Way?

While most foreign residents are familiar with China’s hukou – or residence permit – system, it’s not something that generally has much impact on the lives of expats. But anyone with a Chinese partner or family (or our Chinese readers) might be interested to hear that Hong Kong paper The South China Morning Post reported yesterday (requires subscription) that the Chinese government plans to introduce “a residence permit system nationwide as a step forward in the reform of hukou.”

Currently, only local governments are providing residence permits for migrants for access to some city services, while those living in other parts of the country are out of luck.

The reform, which has been a highly debated issue in China, comes after Premier Wen Jiabao’s announcement in a March report of gradual reform of the hukou system, starting with small and medium-sized cities.

According to the SCMP article, national residence permits will initially be implemented in ten cities: “Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Dongguan in Guangdong; Shanghai, Cixi and Jiaxing in Zhejiang; Taiyuan in Shanxi; Dalian in Liaoning; and Changchun in Jilin. With such permits, migrants can enjoy the same social security benefits as urban residents.”

The article does not specify whether residents will still have to return to their hometowns for administrative tasks such registering a marriage or applying for a passport, or whether a residence permit will entitle their children to attend schools away from their place of birth.

After a certain period of time, “migrants” holding a residence permit will be able to apply for a hukou in their city of residence. The leap to the prized urban hukou still won’t be easy, however. If residents meet a raft of requirements, including not having a criminal record and conforming to birth control policies, they will still have to live in the trial cities for periods ranging from five years for Taiyuan to a full decade for Shenzhen.