The Household Registration System Reform In China

Current household registration system of China was established under influence of planned economy, which brands the system with its extinctive characteristics. The system is well known for its dual structure:it divides Chinese citizens into two categories, agriculture residency and non-agriculture residency; while there can be vast difference between rights or material benefits associated with different residency. As the role that market economy is playing in our society becomes more important, the penalties incurred by current system become starker. Reformation of current household registration system, not only draws attention from numerous scholars, researchers and politicians, but also poses as a major problem in governance administration. This article made a brief analysis on the inevitability of the founding and development of current household registration system. It also researched on household registration systems of two other countries:America, as an example of western countries, and Japan, an Asian neighbor. Through comparison of these systems, successful experience can be put in shaping the reformation. In recent years, there were extensive efforts put in practice for the reformation across the country, among which the example in Sichuan Chengdu bares outstanding result. Even though with the vast territory, diverse circumstances may be observed from place to place, we can still see Chengdu’s reformation as a successful model worth studying and referencing. The reformation in household registration systems imperative:central government has already enacted several reforming policies, continuously diminishing the discrepancy in rights and welfare linked to different residency, lowering the limitation in granting non-agriculture residency. Based on several researches on this topic, I think firstly we need to change the notion of difference between the two factions; then reduce the gap between development in urban and rural area; accelerate on improving laws and policies related to household registration system; raise the overall administrative efficiency; build integral residency registry system and eventually abolish the dual structures and its perdue welfare discrepancy.