Hukou reform expected to be a gradual process_美文

Hukou reform expected to be a gradual process

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Xu Shaoshi, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, promised to "revise and improve the policy suggestion on urbanization" that his commission submitted to the State Council in June.

He made the remarks on Wednesday during the first internal conference since the recent plenum.

Xu's stance appeared to confirm predictions that the central government will gradually modify urban and rural hukou (household registration), rather than canceling the controversial system overnight.

In June, the commission suggested the government should completely lift hukou control in small towns and cities - a bid to ease restrictions in middle-level cities - while gradually broadening conditions to apply for hukou in big cities. It also urged revamping hukou application conditions for megacities.

Experts believe the central government will approach the hukou issue indirectly by providing farmers with more "property income" and basic citizen-welfare treatment.

Hukou reform would be one result of rural land reform, urbanization and social security, although the memo from the just-concluded Third Plenum of the Communist Party of China's 18th Central Committee did not mention it by name. The memo rather stressed a balanced distribution of public resources and equalization of social welfare, which some say will ultimately yield the desired result.

"The memo has actually pointed out a clear direction and roadmap to break the hukou-based dual structure of city and countryside by addressing the welfare disparity," said Zhang Liqun, an economy researcher at the National Development Research Center of the State Council. "The integration of rural and urban is good for modernization of agriculture and healthy urbanization."