Slow progress has been made in the reform of household registration (
hukou) because the changes are largely a readjustment of the set up of the existing interests, plus the central government hasn’t done enough to push for coordination and overall progress and, with their conditions varying, local governments have had to adopt different policies, according to a recent report.
After years of effort and little progress, China’s hukou reform still faces considerable obstacles. Some local governments are reluctant to push ahead when certain vested interests are affected. Urban hukou still provide the holder with many more bundled public welfare items compared to rural hukou, and the points-based registration system is having limited impact, pointed out Sun Wenkai of Renmin University of China and author of the report Motivation Analysis for Household Registration Reform and Recommendations for Furthering Reform, as reported by news portal yicai.com.
China’s hukou system is in effect a vehicle for many public services and public financing, according to the report. For instance, an urban hukou is a prerequisite for access to better education. Therefore, reform requires an entire overhaul, which is a tough challenge for governments.
The central government has done little to push for coordination and overall progress. Between 2001 and 2012, it didn't issue a single document on the reform, which allowed local governments significant autonomy on hukou, noted the report.
Different places in China have different conditions – the country’s eastern coastal regions are far more developed than the western interior and the country's larger cities now have a larger population than the combined population of small cities or towns. This reality means some places have not been able to offer the same degree of openness towards migrants. The most developed cities like Beijing are controlling population.
Based on a quantitative analysis of 21 Chinese cities over the last three years, the report presented the factors affecting the degree of openness. For instance, when a local government spends more, the living standards are higher, and the population density is higher, resulting in a lower degree of openness.
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