An Analysis of the Two Major Priorities of New Urbanization: Exploring Household Registration System Reform

The concept of new urbanization has not yet been defined uniformly in academia, but different scholars have a roughly similar understanding of its connotation: new urbanization is a form of urbanization with the basic characteristics of urban-rural coordination, urban-rural integration, industry-city interaction, conservation and intensiveness, ecological livability, and harmonious development, and it is an urbanization in which large, medium and small cities, small towns, and new rural communities develop in a coordinated way and promote each other's progress. New urbanization is a key link in China's economic and social development, an important engine for maintaining sustained and healthy economic development, and an important way to solve the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. Urbanization is the product of economic development reaching a certain stage, and labor and capital are the two most basic factors in economic development, so in comprehensively advancing the process of new urbanization, these two aspects are crucial, namely the urbanization of people and the raising of capital in the process of urbanization.

The citizenization of the agricultural transferred population is the key to advancing new urbanization. The so-called urbanization of people, also called citizenization, means realizing the transfer of the rural population to cities and integrating into urban production methods and lifestyles, becoming true urban citizens. During more than 30 years of reform and opening up, China's permanent resident population urbanization rate reached 53.7%. However, the household registration population urbanization rate was only about 36%, and spatial urbanization did not correspondingly produce population urbanization. China has 260 million migrant workers, and the household registration problem has shut them out from enjoying the fruits of urbanization, which still leaves a large gap from the requirements of true urbanization.

Exploration of Household Registration System Reform

Chongqing integrates a large city, a large rural area, a large reservoir area, a large mountainous area and ethnic minority areas into one, has the system of a municipality directly under the Central Government, and the scale of a medium-sized province, with a prominent dual structure, and its municipal conditions are very special. Therefore, Chongqing's special municipal conditions are both a microcosm of the complex situations of all regions of China, and its exploration of household registration system reform also has its unique regional characteristics. It is worth everyone's analysis and reference.

Since Chongqing launched household registration system reform in 2010, it has focused on grasping five principles. First, clearly define the target. It mainly targets migrant workers who have stable employment and fixed residences in cities and towns. Second, ensure that protections are in place. After migrant workers transfer their household registration, the "five garments" of employment, old-age care, medical care, education and housing are all in place in one step, and they enjoy the same treatment as urban residents. Third, allow the independent disposal of rural rights and interests. At the beginning of migrant workers' household registration transfer, they have not yet gained a firm foothold in the city. Starting from the protection of their rights and interests, their wishes should be respected, and they should be allowed to retain their contracted land, homestead land and forest land in rural areas (the "three garments" are still worn), and institutional design should provide multiple options such as retention, transfer and withdrawal. Fourth, ensure reasonable distribution. By scientifically setting the conditions for settling as registered residents, guide transferred residents to distribute in echelon according to a ratio of 4:3:3 among large cities, district and county seats and small towns, so as to avoid both excessive concentration of population in large cities and overwhelming employment and social management in small towns. Fifth, establish a long-cycle cost-sharing mechanism among the government, enterprises and society. According to estimates, the per capita cost of migrant workers' household registration transfer is more than 100,000 yuan. In fact, the reform cost is not borne by the government alone: enterprises must make up the social security shortfall, accounting for 40%, transferred residents bear 30% themselves, and the government's supporting investment in infrastructure and public facilities accounts for only 30%. At the same time, farmers' household registration transfer and the corresponding cost expenditures are not completed all at once, but constitute a long-cycle process, and the cost apportioned to each year is completely affordable. Since Chongqing launched the household registration system reform for migrant workers in 2010, more than 3.8 million people have cumulatively transferred their household registration, achieving notable results in advancing the urbanization of people and providing great inspiration and reference for household registration system reform in other provinces and municipalities.

Steadily advance household registration system reform. At the present stage, China's urbanization is an important part of deepening reform. Its focus is to break through the urban-rural dual system that has been implemented for as long as more than 50 years and realize urban-rural integration. The urban-rural dual household registration system is the cornerstone on which the urban-rural dual system depends for its existence, so when breaking down the urban-rural dual system, the dualization of urban and rural household registration must be changed into a unified urban-rural household registration system. Urban-rural integration requires a relatively long process, and every province and municipality has its own unique provincial and municipal conditions, so when advancing household registration system reform, one must not be impatient for success, but should advance steadily and with full preparation, so that "when water arrives, a channel is formed." Advancing household registration system reform has basically become everyone's consensus, but how to advance it so as to more actively and effectively promote new urbanization and thereby promote healthy economic and social development remains controversial in academia.

Does advancing household registration system reform mean directly abolishing the urban-rural dual household registration system? Some scholars believe that the current urban-rural gap is constantly widening, the urbanization of people lags seriously behind industrialization, and the urban-rural dual system should be broken down promptly and as soon as possible, directly abolishing the urban-rural dual household registration system in one step; scholars who disagree with this view believe that various preparations must be made before it can be gradually opened up. If the household registration controls on farmers entering cities were canceled all at once, the welfare and public resources originally limited to urban residents would suddenly appear extremely scarce, and it could even bring destructive shocks to cities.

China's cities can be divided into at least four levels by scale (super-large, large, medium and small), and most experts believe that household registration integration can first be carried out in small and medium-sized cities, and only after a certain amount of experience has been accumulated should it be extended in large cities. The reasons are: the differences among cities of various types are very large; in the process of urbanization, super-large and large cities indeed have characteristics different from other types of cities, and further research is still needed before implementing a single-track household registration system; however, large cities have great financial strength. If they do not take the first step and do not set an example in integrating farmers into cities, are poor small cities supposed to take the first step? Overall, the basic direction of household registration system reform should be to strip away the welfare distribution function of the household registration system and restore its own management function. The basic goal is to realize the urbanization of people and put the improvement of people's quality of life first. Every province and municipality should steadily advance household registration system reform according to its own circumstances.