By Dr Monika Chansoria
December 27, 2014
China’s “urbanisation” campaign is subjected to cater to nearly 260 million migrant workers who await benefits calculated on the basis of the household registration system, commonly known as hukou. At the third plenum of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, incorporating “human-centered urbanisation” into an approved policy termed “core of urbanisation” was emphasised upon with the primary task of “human-centered urbanisation” being to help migrants in registering as urban residents. The CCP has set a target of a new hukou status for nearly 100 million migrant workers by the end of 2020. The Chinese government announces stepping up financial support and policy incentives to improve people's well-being and stimulate domestic demand, in order to shore up economic recovery. In this reference, official Chinese media reportage cites that 728.4 billion yuan ($107 billion) has been earmarked towards the education and medical system, social security, job promotion and affordable housing construction in China. Besides, the basic pension insurance covers 232.38 million urban residents in 27 provinces and autonomous regions, along with four municipalities starting such pilot programmes.
However, even though China reportedly generated 10.1 million new jobs exclusively in the urban areas till November 2014, the urban jobless rate would likely be 4.3 percent by the end of 2014. The condition of the jobless rural migrant workers does not look very promising. This, despite the fact that by the third quarter of this year, 152 million rural migrant workers found jobs outside their hometown. Another issue is skyrocketing property prices in various cities in China. To address this, the government is investing 41.5 billion yuan to expand affordable housing construction for the middle- and lower-income groups. This year alone, the State Council reported that 277,000 units of low-rent housing have been built, and another 1.36 million are presently under construction. In a recent press release the Chinese State Council stressed upon its efforts to stabilise the real estate market through increasing supply of affordable housing.
Notwithstanding that all these incentives by the Chinese government look promising, the bitter realities surrounding the urbanisation plan are too grave and sombre to ignore. During many conversations, I came across many families that are struggling to survive in cities across China especially among the migrant working class. A case in point is that of Yang Hongjiang originally from the Zhejiang province. Together with his wife Yue Huimin, they raise seven children. Since only three of the seven children have household registration in their hometown, his remaining children cannot be enrolled in school since they do not have hukou. All these factors could potentially give rise to greater social unrest, something that both the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party shall best try to contain.
Migrant workers who stay in cities for a minimum of half a year with a stable job and residence are eligible to apply for residence permits. Currently, citizens without urban hukou do not enjoy equal access to public services in cities. And when we say cities, we should not just be discussing Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but also second-tier cities that form a major bulk of territory. China is confronting problems stemming out of this scheme on a large scale and has recently unveiled a plan to reform the country's residence permit system. As per this new plan, migrants would be granted equal access to more public services. Residence permit holders would now be able to avail benefits including medical services and education for their children just like urban dwellers. The plan, released by the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council will take into account the feedback that is received in due course of time.
China under Xi Jinping has advocated for proactive progress in the promotion of “human-centered urbanisation”. However, while one reality is that the reform is directed towards allowing migrants to enjoy basic welfare and services, the other equally relevant facet is the influx of people into bigger cities looking for better opportunities. This entails a risk of triggering a population explosion that could be overwhelming for China to handle politically, economically, and most importantly, socially. Urbanisation is definitely redesigning China’s physical environment and cultural fabric.
The author is Senior Fellow at CLAWS. Views expressed are personal.
- See more at: http://www.claws.in/1314/harsh-realities-confront-chinas-urbanisation-plan-and-hukou-status-dr-monika-chansoria.html#sthash.ZLVvNZoE.dpuf
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