The key to reforming the household registration system lies in the distribution of interests

The State Council published the "Opinions on Further Advancing the Reform of the Household Registration System" on the 30th, proposing the establishment of a unified urban-rural household registration system. The "Opinions" made clear that China will gradually abolish the distinction between agricultural and non-agricultural household registration, and uniformly register residents as resident households. This marks that the dual household registration management model of "agricultural" and "non-agricultural" that had been in place for more than half a century will exit the stage of history.

The intensity of this reform of the household registration system is unprecedented, and the "Opinions" will be a programmatic document guiding household registration reform across the country for a period to come. This reform also carries a specific task, which is to strive to achieve the settlement in cities and towns of about 100 million people transferred from agriculture. The close relationship between household registration system reform and urbanization can be seen from a policy "preview" released by relevant departments more than 4 months ago - in March of this year, the "National New Urbanization Plan" was published, and a relevant official of the Ministry of Public Security said at the time that China's new urbanization construction had officially started, and that household registration system reform, as one of the supporting policies for new urbanization, was expected to be introduced soon.

Household registration system reform is a supporting policy for new urbanization, but the significance of the reform is far more than simply "supporting." Since 1958, when the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Household Registration" were officially implemented, China gradually formed a dual society based on the two types of household registration, agricultural and non-agricultural. The dual household registration system was a product of the planned economy era, and its development to the present day has become an obstacle to economic and social development. The dual household registration system has hindered urban development and agricultural modernization, and is not conducive to the smooth progress of the urbanization of the agricultural population. At the same time, strict household registration migration regulations have greatly limited citizens' normal need to migrate, and have been widely criticized by society.

The dual household registration system uses household registration as its basis and forms a labor employment and social security system that divides urban and rural areas. The dual household registration system has brought enormous differences in rights and protections between urban and rural areas, and has even evolved into the social tragedy of "same life, different price." According to relevant judicial interpretations, the main basis for calculating compensation is the per capita income of urban or rural residents. Thus, in some criminal cases or accidents, because victims have different urban or rural household registration "origins," the disability or death compensation they each receive differs by one time or even more.

The dual household registration management system has attached too many social management functions. From social security to education, medical care, housing and other welfare benefits, these are often all related to residents' household registration. Household registration interests are everywhere, and household registration has therefore lost its original appearance and become a carrier of social welfare benefits. In establishing a unified urban-rural household registration system, the difficulty of this reform is how to gradually strip away the many social welfare benefits linked to household registration and promote the equalization of public welfare. One of the goals of this household registration system reform is to achieve the settlement in cities and towns of about 100 million people transferred from agriculture and other permanent residents. These 100 million people already basically work and live in cities and towns. If other economic and social supporting measures cannot be effectively connected, merely unifying their household registration would make such household registration reform meaningless and would also be unacceptable to the masses.

Whether this household registration reform can smoothly achieve its goal depends on whether various supporting measures and social welfare can benefit the newly settled people. The 100 million people about to settle in cities and towns need to enjoy various local urban basic public services, including employment services, basic old-age care, basic medical and health care, housing security, and compulsory education for their children. The realization of equalization of public welfare is a necessary condition for the success of household registration system reform, and it is also a major redistribution of interests. The government's fiscal investment is the main guarantee for realizing this distribution of interests.

The importance of interest distribution in household registration system reform is also shown between large cities and small and medium-sized cities. In recent years, many small and medium-sized cities have in fact already relaxed settlement policies, but the results have been poor, and they have not attracted enough rural transferred population to settle. The lack of attractiveness of small and medium-sized cities is caused by deficiencies in the construction of their municipal infrastructure and public service facilities. From foreign experience, many headquarters of large enterprises and famous universities are distributed in small and medium-sized cities, because the relevant cities have good municipal infrastructure and excellent public resources such as education and medical care. China should break through obstacles in some institutional mechanisms and tilt various high-quality resources toward small and medium-sized cities. This tilt of resources is also a redistribution of interests, and will play an important role in promoting household registration reform.

Household registration reform is a major social issue concerning public interests. For a long time, the progress of household registration system reform has been relatively slow, and the difficulty of the reform lies in the fact that it involves major interest adjustments. However, the dual household registration management system has become a major obstacle to the development of China's productive forces, and the reform must be advanced no matter how difficult it is. The state must increase fiscal investment to ensure the smooth progress of interest redistribution, and at the same time must have enough patience and resolve to sustain this process, so that the continuously improving level of urbanization becomes the best catalyst for household registration reform.