People walk on a bridge by the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China August 31, 2016. Photo by Reuters/Aly Song
China will ease restrictions for its citizens hoping to settle permanently in small and medium-sized towns, state media reported Thursday, but changes in larger cities like the capital Beijing will be more limited.
The Ministry of Public Security will encourage the “complete lifting” of urban settlement restrictions in cities with a permanent resident population of less than three million and “completely relax” settlement requirements for cities with a permanent resident population of from three to five million, Beijing Daily reported.
The move signals that elements of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan announced in 2021 are being implemented and marks further relaxation of the “hukou” household registration system that for decades divided people between urban and rural areas and thus determined their access to social support, education and services.
Under the hukou system, hundreds of millions of people living and working in Chinese cities have not been able to enjoy the same access to services as permanent residents. This caused a lot of resentment, for example because the children, who cannot go to school in some cities, had to return to their distant hometowns and be separated from their parents.
Over the past decade, a number of cities, in some cases through pilot programs, have relaxed these policies. Last month, the eastern province of Zhejiang announced that it would lift all such restrictions for all cities except its capital, Hangzhou. Thursday’s announcement signals a much larger easing nationwide.
For “super-large” cities that have a permanent resident population above 5 million, such as Beijing and Shanghai, the changes are more muted. China will improve the points-based policy for people wanting to move to these cities, according to the report, a fact netizens have noticed.
“Let’s talk about that once you loosen the policy in the biggest cities,” said a user of social media platform Weibo.
China’s largest cities, also among the wealthiest, have the best schools and hospitals and are considered to offer the best job opportunities.
