13th Five-Year Plan recommendations: Encourage rural migrant workers to settle in cities with their entire families
The Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 13th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, released yesterday, proposed encouraging agricultural migrant workers who have the ability to secure stable employment and life in cities and towns to settle there with their entire families, and to enjoy equal rights and obligations as urban residents. When Xi Jinping explained the drafting of the document to the plenary session, he pointed out that among the 750 million urban permanent residents, 250 million are non-local permanent residents mainly composed of migrant workers. They cannot yet equally enjoy public services in cities and towns in areas such as education, employment services, social security, medical care, and affordable housing, which brings about some complex economic and social problems.
Original text of Recommendation 1
Promote coordinated urban-rural development. Adhere to industry nurturing agriculture and cities supporting rural areas, improve the institutional mechanisms for integrated urban-rural development, and advance equal exchange of urban-rural factors, rational allocation, and equalization of basic public services.
Advance a new type of urbanization centered on people. Improve urban planning, construction, and management. Deepen reform of the household registration system, encourage agricultural migrant workers who have the ability to secure stable employment and life in cities and towns to settle there with their entire families, and to enjoy equal rights and obligations as urban residents. Implement the residence permit system, and strive to achieve full coverage of basic public services for permanent residents.
■ Explanation
100 million non-local permanent residents to accelerate settling and obtaining urban household registration
In his explanation of the Recommendations, Xi Jinping pointed out that the urbanization rate of the household registration population directly reflects the health of urbanization. According to the National New-Type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020), the urbanization rate of the household registration population is predicted to reach about 45% by 2020. Calculated on the basis of the 35.9% urbanization rate of the household registration population in 2013, this means an average annual increase of 1.3 percentage points, and more than 16 million people needing to transfer their household registration each year on average. At present, calculated by permanent resident population, China's urbanization rate is already close to 55%, with urban permanent residents reaching 750 million. The problem is that these 750 million people include 250 million non-local permanent residents mainly composed of migrant workers. They cannot yet equally enjoy public services in cities and towns in areas such as education, employment services, social security, medical care, and affordable housing, which brings about some complex economic and social problems.
The draft Recommendations proposed accelerating the increase of the urbanization rate of the household registration population, in order to accelerate the implementation of the central government's goal of having about 100 million migrant workers and other permanent residents settle in cities and towns. These 100 million people mainly refer to the population of rural students entering cities and towns for further education or joining the military, those who have worked and lived in cities and towns for more than 5 years, and agricultural migrant workers who have migrated with their entire families.
Achieving the settlement of 100 million people in cities and towns is of great significance. From the supply side, amid a decline in the total working-age population, it is of great significance for stabilizing labor supply and wage costs and cultivating a modern industrial workforce. From the demand side, it is of great significance for expanding consumer demand, stabilizing the real estate market, and expanding investment in urban infrastructure and public service facilities. Achieving this goal is conducive to stabilizing economic growth and also to promoting social fairness, justice, harmony and stability. It is an inherent requirement for a moderately prosperous society in all respects to benefit more people. This requires increasing efforts to implement household registration system reform measures, accelerating the improvement of related supporting policies, and ensuring the realization of this goal.
>> Interpretation
Rural people moving to cities is not just a matter of household registration
Liu Hongbin, a professor at the People's Public Security University of China, said that the so-called agricultural migrant workers who have the ability to secure stable employment and life in cities and towns mainly include two groups. The first is the rural population already employed in cities. Although their household registration has not yet been converted to urban household registration, they actually live in cities for the long term and work in the tertiary and secondary industries, but because their identity has not been transferred, they remain in a floating state. The second is the children of these people. They live in cities for the long term but do not have urban household registration. Due to various reasons such as homestead land and contracted land, they have constrained the development process of population urbanization.
Liu Hongbin said that at present China's population urbanization is not too low, having already exceeded 50%, but in developed countries very few agricultural workers exceed 50%, and the urbanization population is generally above 70%. If population urbanization cannot be achieved, the labor force cannot be released. Only through population urbanization can productivity be stimulated more effectively. China's current urbanization process is incompatible with the needs of expanding domestic demand and social development.
But what kind of person exactly counts as having the ability to transfer? It does not only mean a change in household registration; in fact, the mode of labor production has also changed. Without a corresponding change in educational level and lifestyle, even if an urban household registration is given, it is not a true transformation. From the current perspective, those with ability, subjectively speaking, are willing to come to cities to live. After coming to cities, they must also be able to adapt to the needs of urban production methods, be able to transform their identity, have a certain cultural quality, and have the knowledge and skills to engage in various forms of urban production.
Liu Hongbin pointed out that reform of the household registration system began around 1998, and localities have been promoting it for many years. Why has large-scale population urbanization not occurred? In fact, it is related to interests. Changing household registration is easy, but it also involves contracted land and homestead land. Rural people working in cities still have homestead land and contracted land, which is also a kind of interest. If they no longer have rural household registration, these will be gone. Rural areas rely on income from land, which is a different system from cities. To eliminate this obstacle, it is necessary to eliminate the barrier between urban interests and rural interests and connect the two. When farmers enter cities, they can monetize their land interests and bring them to the city, allowing them to circulate, so that they can truly become urban residents. As for paid transfer, it can be through some form of shareholding, or having others operate it while they profit. Only in this way can household registration truly return to its essence as a population registration, no longer serving to fix the social welfare and security of urban residents.
Liu Hongbin said that the population basic information database is actually basically in place already. There are two systems: one is the population database resources formed from permanent resident registration forms at the time of household registration, and the second is the population information retained when identity cards are processed. What needs to be done now is to establish a database shared by all departments, which requires breaking down the barriers between departments.
Beijing Times reporter Yuan Guoli
□ Law-based government
“13th Five-Year Plan” to basically complete the building of a law-based government
Original text of Recommendation 2
People's democracy will be further improved, a law-based government will be basically completed, and judicial credibility will be notably enhanced. Human rights will be effectively safeguarded, and property rights will be effectively protected. A new open economy system will be basically formed. The modern military system with Chinese characteristics will be further improved. The institutionalization level of Party building will be significantly raised.
>> Interpretation
Officials' governance philosophy and values must change
From the completion of the legal system to the realization of basically completing the building of a law-based government, what gaps remain? What are the core elements and key points for basically completing the building of a law-based government? Wang Yukai, vice president of the China Administrative Reform Research Society and a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said that the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee proposed the overall goal and major tasks of comprehensively advancing the rule of law, and the task of basically completing the building of a law-based government within 5 years can be described as quite arduous.
At the same time, there are several key points that need to be tackled first. First, officials' governance philosophy and values need to change. To a certain extent, officials in China's officialdom do not lack rule-of-man thinking and power thinking; rather, they lack rule-of-law thinking and the spirit of the rule of law. If building a law-based government does not change its value orientation, then reform will encounter great resistance in spirit, which will affect the completion of a law-based government on schedule.
Second, the core of building a law-based government is to restrict public power. The ordering of restricting public power, protecting the people, and governing society must not be mistaken. If the ordering is improper, it will also affect the building of a law-based government. If public power cannot be constrained, cases of law enforcement violating the law and law enforcement breaking the law will continue despite repeated prohibitions, and situations infringing on the people's interests and depriving citizens of their rights will intensify. The central government's anti-corruption approach should form mechanisms whereby officials dare not, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt. Forming such institutional mechanisms and political atmosphere also requires the promotion of building a law-based government. Among these, "cannot be corrupt" mainly means building a cage of institutions through law, so that public power is constrained and restricted.
>> Milestones
Legislative work for the legal system with Chinese characteristics has been completed
During the 2011 National Two Sessions, the work report of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress stated that the legislative work goal proposed by the 15th Party Congress of forming a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics by 2010 had been completed on schedule.
Wang Yukai said that the 13th Five-Year Plan recommendations only mention "basically completing" the building of a law-based government, that is, building the framework and systems for a law-based government. Fully completing the building of a law-based government is extremely difficult and faces many challenges. It is necessary to start with government public governance and push government construction onto the track of the rule of law.
At the same time, in terms of the relationship among a law-based government, a law-based society, and a law-based country, a law-based government plays the role of a bridge and hub connecting the preceding and the following. If a law-based government is not built well, then expectations for a law-based society and a law-based country will be greatly reduced. The maturity of a law-based government also directly affects the degree of rule of law in society and the country.
Beijing Times reporter Sun Qian
□ Military and national defense
Military reform to be basically completed by 2020
Original text of Recommendation 3
By 2020, basically complete the goals and tasks of national defense and military reform, basically achieve mechanization, make major progress in informatization, and build a modern military force system with Chinese characteristics capable of winning informationized wars and effectively fulfilling missions and tasks.
>> Interpretation
Our military will undergo a great transformation reborn anew
Military expert Zhang Junshe said that in the next 5 years the military will focus on reform in the following three aspects. First, streamline the military formation system, gradually improve the joint operations capability of various services and arms, achieve a flattened command system, compress ground force strength, appropriately increase the proportion of naval, air, and Second Artillery forces, reduce command links, and improve command efficiency and capability. Second, accelerate the pace of modernization of military weapons and equipment, move toward mechanization and informatization, and in the current situation of integrated information operations, improve the integrated development of network command and intelligence reconnaissance. Third, from a strategic perspective, emphasize the active defense strategy. In the future, greater emphasis will be placed on dynamic defense and offensive defense in terms of capability, improving our military's second-strike capability and conventional counterattack operational capability.
Gong Fangbin, a professor at the National Defense University, believes that since the 18th Party Congress, the military's goal of strengthening itself has become clearer, and a series of rules and regulations for running the military according to law have been issued, mainly reflected in political organization, logistics and equipment, and financial management. At the same time, anti-corruption and integrity-building in the military also demonstrate a clear determination to run the military according to law. By setting goals, changing work styles, and establishing rules, the focus of military development for the next 5 years has been laid. Now and in the next 5 years, our military will undergo its second great transformation reborn anew since its founding. Under the premise of focusing on active defense, in order to safeguard world peace and realize a community of shared future, our military must also implement a going-out strategy.
>> Milestones
At the 9·3 military parade, Xi Jinping announced a reduction of 300,000 troops
At the military parade on September 3 this year commemorating the 70th anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance, President Xi Jinping proposed that the military would reduce its troops by 300,000. This reform will involve the command system and the logistics support system.
It should be noted that the military is not reducing personnel for the sake of reducing personnel; it is naturally formed after institutional reform. It is rather different in nature from previous rounds of troop streamlining; it is a by-product naturally formed by a scientific command system and structure.
Although the goal of reducing 300,000 troops is initially required to be completed by 2017, the task of forming combat capability is still very arduous. After the new command system is formed, related mechanisms still need to be improved.
In the next 5 years, the core and focus will be on military reform. In fact, this is about truly bringing the entire institutional reform onto the right track, so that the military truly enters a normalized state and can respond to external challenges at any time.