Information about Hukou

A hùkǒu (Chinese: 户口) or hùjí (Chinese: 戶籍) refers to the system of residency permits which dates back to the 1950s where household registration is required by law in the People's Republic of China and Taiwan.

A household registration record officially identifies a person as a resident of an area and includes identifying information such the name of the person, date of birth, the names of parents, and name of spouse, if married.

A hukou can also refer to a family register in many contexts since the household registration record (戶籍謄本, hùjíténgběn) is issued per family, and usually includes the births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and moves, of all members in the family. A similar household registration system exists within the public administration structures of Japan (koseki), Vietnam (Hộ khẩu) and North Korea (Hoju). In South Korea the Hoju system will be abolished from 2008.

History

Family registers were in existence in China as early as the Xia Dynasty. In the centuries which followed, the family register developed into an organization of families and clans for purposes of taxation, conscription and social control.

According to the Examination of Hukou in Wenxian Tongkao published in 1317, there was a minister for population managemen during the Zhou Dynasty named Simin (Chinese: 司民), who was responsible for recoding births, deaths, emigrations and immigrations. The Rites of Zhou notes that three copies of documents were kept in different places. The administrative divisions in Zhou Dynasty were a function of the distance to the state capital. The top division nearest the capital was named Dubi (Chinese: 都鄙), top division in more distant areas were named Xiang (Chinese: 乡) and Sui (Chinese: 遂). Families are organized under the Baojia system.

Guan Zhong, Prime Minister of the Qi state 7th century BCE, imposed different taxation and conscription policies on different areas^[1]. In addition, Guan Zhong also banned immigration, emigration, and separation of families without permission^[2]. In the Book of Lord Shang, Shang Yang also described his policy banning immigrations and emigrations^[3].

Xiao He, the first Chancellor of the Han Dynasty, added the chapter of Hu (Chinese: 户律) as one of the nine basic laws of Han (Chinese: 九章律), and established the Hukou system as the basis of tax revenue and conscription.

Residency permits in mainland China

The Communist Party came to power in the late 1940s, instigated a command economy. In the 1958, Mao Zedong set up an hereditary residency permit system defining where people could work. Individuals were broadly categorised as "rural" or "urban" worker.^[4] A worker seeking to move from the country to urban areas to take up non-agricultural work would have to apply through the relevant bureaucracies. The number of workers allowed to make such moves was tightly controlled. Migrant workers would require six passes to work in provinces other than their own.^[4] People who worked outside their authorized domain or geographical area would not qualify for grain rations, employer-provided housing, or health care.^[5] There were controls over education, employment, marriage and so on.^[4]

Rationale

With its large rural population of poor farm workers, hukou limited mass migration from the land to the cities to ensure some structural stability. The hukou system was an instrument of the command economy. By regulating labour, it ensured an adequate supply of low cost workers to the plethora of state owned businesses.^[4]

For some time, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security continued to justify these hukou system on public order grounds, and also provided demographic data for government central planning.^[6]

Enforcement

From around 1953 to 1976, Police would periodically round up those who without valid residence permit, place them in detention centres and expel them from cities.^[7]

Administration regulations issued in 1982 known as "custody and repatriation" authorized police to detain people, and "repatriate" them to their permanent residency location.

Although an individual is technically required to live in the area designated on his/her permit, in practice the system has largely broken down. After Chinese market reforms, it became possible for some to unofficially migrate and get a job without a valid permit. Economic reforms also created pressures to encourage migration from the interior to the coast. It also provided incentives for officials not to enforce regulations on migration.

Consequences on rural workers

From around 1953 to 1976, the enforcement of non-portable rights associated with one's domicile created an underclass. Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while China's 800 million rural population was treated as second-class citizens.^[5] However, the ruling party made some concessions to rural workers to make life in rural areas "survivable... if not easy or pleasant". ^[9]

From 1978 to 2001, as China transitioned from state capitalism to market capitalism, export-processing zones were created in city suburbs, where mostly female migrants worked under oppressive conditions.^[9] Restrictions placed on the mobility of migrant workers were pervasive,^[4] and transient workers were forced to live a precarious existence in company dormitories or shanty towns, and suffering abusive consequences.^[4]

The impact of hukou system on migrant laborers became particularly onerous in the 1980s after hundreds of millions of were forced out of state corporations and co-operatives.^[4] Since the 1980s, an estimated 200 million Chinese live outside their officially-registered areas, with much less access to education and government services, and in several respects occupy a social and economic status similar to illegal immigrants.^[5] The millions of peasants who have since quit the land remain stuck at the margins of urban society, and have been blamed for the rising crime and unemployment. Under pressure from their citizens, city governments impose discriminatory rules.^[4]

Analogies to apartheid

The hukou system has been described as "China's apartheid".^[11][12] The gradual relaxation of some of the more repressive aspects of the hukou system since the mid-1990s has largely eliminated the spatial aspect of the "apartheid". However, as the hukou remains hereditary, the "substance of the social apartheid remains intact."^[12]

The similarity to South Africa's apartheid system end in two areas: Firstly, under a system called xia fang, or "sending down", individuals or groups of urban workers were sometimes re-classified as rural workers and banished to the countryside (at lower wages and benefits), often as a sentence for "bourgeois imperialist crimes" during the Cultural Revolution; by contrast, white workers in South Africa were never sent to work in Bantustans. Second, the ideology driving China's apartheid system was Maoism, not racism.^[9]

Reform

Reforming the residency system has been a very controversial topic within the PRC. Although the system in operation was widely regarded within the PRC as unfair and inhumane, there were fears that liberalisation would result in a massive influx to the cities which would stress already strained government services beyond the breaking point, and result in further economic loss to rural areas, rising social unrest and crime.^[5]

On the other hand, there has been recognition for some time that hukou is an impediment to economic development.^[4] China's accession to the World Trade Organisation has forced it to embrace this reform to liberalise the movement of labour, speeding up its economic reform^[13]

The system has undergone further relaxation since the mid 1990s. The first relaxation allowed rural residents to buy a temporary urban residency permits, meaning they could work legally; fees for these decreased gradually to a fairly affordable level. The discrimination against rural women has been alleviated from 1998, when hukou became inheritable through either the father’s or the mother’s line.^[12]

From 2001 onwards, hukou controls were weakened. In 2003, after the uproar surrounding the death of Sun Zhigang alarmed the authorities, the laws on Custody and repatriation were repealed;^[12] by 2004 the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture estimated that over 100 million people registered as "rural" were working in cities.^[9]

Household registration in Taiwan

When Taiwan was under Japanese rule from 1895 to 1945, the Japanese government maintained the same system of household registration (koseki) as they did in other parts of the Empire of Japan. This system of household registration, with minor changes, has been continued. Records concerning native Taiwanese are fairly complete. Records of Mainlanders date back to the date they first applied for registration with the local household registration office, and are based on information provided by the applicant.

While all ROC nationals, including overseas Chinese with no connection to Taiwan, can apply for a ROC passport, proper household registration is required for obtaining a ROC ID Card, which is often used as proof of citizenship, such as in national elections, and an ID number is needed to open bank accounts. Unlike in mainland China, residency can be easily changed with the local authorities and household registration does not serve as a tool to limit a resident's movements within Taiwan.

Special administrative regions

Hukou is not employed in the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, though identification cards are mandatory for residents there.

References

See also

• Propiska
• Internal passport
• Dangan
• REAL ID Act

External links

• Visa Reciprocity and Country Documents Finder - Taiwan
• SOUTH KOREA: Male-Oriented Family Registry System to Change in 2008
• Wang Jianshuo: Hukou system in China]