MCLC: social divisions and the hukou system

Denton, Kirk denton.2 at osu.edu
Mon Dec 17 10:16:59 EST 2012


MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: social divisions and the hukou system
***********************************************************

Source: LA Times (12/12/12):
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china-hukou-20121212,0,1248525.story

In China, social divisions are written in a little red booklet
In China, the hukou limits where citizens can live and work, dividing 1.3
billion people into 'urban' or 'rural.' But today, the registration system
threatens China's future as a powerhouse economy.
By David Pierson

BEIJING — For millions of Chinese, the difference between a life of
struggle and one of opportunity comes down to a little red booklet known
as the hukou.

Introduced 54 years ago under Mao Tse-tung as a means of social control,
this household registration permit limits where China's 1.3 billion
citizens can live, work and go to school by splitting them into two
categories — urban and rural.

Today, the hukou, inspired by family registers from centuries ago, has
created a modern economic chasm between city dwellers and peasants that
threatens China's economic future as a powerhouse world economy.

The hukou system also has become a flash point in China's wealth gap.
Pent-up frustration with the country's growing divide has erupted in
violent protests and riots.

Anger over the household registration system exploded again last month on
China's frenetic micro-blogs after five rural boys in southern Guizhou
province died of asphyxiation; the children had been huddled in a dumpster
where they had lit a fire to escape the cold.

The youngsters were part of the so-called left-behind generation, unable
to join their parents in the city because their families couldn't afford
the extra school fees charged to migrants. The issue has become so
sensitive that the journalist who broke the story has reportedly been
detained by authorities.

"The popular narrative about migrants' lives getting better by the second
generation doesn't work in China because children there also suffer from a
lack of access to equal rights and equal opportunity," said University of
Washington professor Kam Wing Chan, an expert on Chinese migration and
hukou policy.

China's leaders appear to recognize the need to overhaul thehukou
(pronounced WHO-ko) system. The issue received modest attention at the
recent Communist Party congress.

"Our people have an ardent love for life," China's incoming president, Xi
Jinping, said in a nod to populism at the closing of the congress. "They
wish to have better education, more stable jobs, more income, greater
social security, better medical and healthcare, improved housing
conditions and a better environment."

But change has been slow largely because of resistance from
municipalities. Most local tax revenue is controlled by the central
government, leaving cities few resources to expand public services for
migrants.

Those lucky enough to hold an urban hukou, particularly in vibrant cities
such as Beijing and Shanghai, have access to urban schools, hospitals and
jobs that are far superior to those in the countryside.

Rural hukou holders are welcomed in urban areas only when they are needed
as construction workers, waiters, cooks, factory hands and nannies. But
authorities don't want them planting roots and overwhelming China's cities.

They are in effect barred from bringing their children and extended
families because they face prohibitive fees for obtaining education and
other public services in the cities.

Wei Yuying is one of about 200 million rural transplants, a massive
underclass of migrant workers living like illegal immigrants in their own
country with slim prospects of joining the middle class.

A former rice and corn farmer from western Sichuan province, Wei moved to
Beijing eight years ago in search of a better life. She now lives with her
husband in a rented room no bigger than a tool shed in a half-demolished
neighborhood filled with fellow migrants.

Their children stayed behind with grandparents in the countryside. Wei saw
her son and daughter just once a year, during the spring festival
holidays. Now in their 20s, the offspring are migrants themselves in
western Chengdu and southern Guangzhou.

"Our family is poor so we decided to leave for the city. Now we're here,
we can't make much money either," said Wei, 46, who works under-the-table
construction jobs for a few hundred dollars a month. "We have no pension
or medical insurance. It's almost impossible. We're barely surviving."

China may be the world's second-largest economy, but if it wants to become
a rich nation like Japan or South Korea, it will need to improve the
living standards of ordinary citizens like Wei, economists say.

A robust consumer class would help China reduce its lopsided reliance on
cheap exports, real estate development and public infrastructure to keep
growing at a sustainable pace.

"This is a very important part of rebalancing," said Louis Kuijs, a former
World Bank economist now with the Royal Bank of Scotland. "If people
urbanize fully, they'll behave like normal urban citizens by spending more
of their incomes."

Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times <http://www.latimes.com/>





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