中国13家媒体联合发声 呼吁改革户籍制度

China Editorial Urges Sweeping Change to Household Registration

Thirteen local Chinese newspapers published an editorial urging authorities to reform the system of household registration that divides China's population into rural and urban residents, a bold call for reform days ahead of the start of the country's annual legislative session.

Monday's editorial represents a rare coordinated effort by Chinese media outlets to speak out on a sensitive matter of major domestic importance. The piece describes the 'hukou' household registration system, adopted in the late 1950s to control population movement, in scathing terms as a source of injustice and breeding ground for corruption.

'China has endured the bitterness of its household registration system for so long!' the editorial says. 'We hold that individuals are born free, possessing the right to move freely!'

The editorials highlight growing public unhappiness with a system that officials have failed to change as rapidly as China's population. Controls have been loosened to allow for a massive migration of labor from the countryside to cities over the three decades since China's economic reforms started. But established urban residents continue to enjoy preferential access to subsidized education, health care and housing in the cities in which they are registered. Migrants face restrictions and often have to pay much more for benefits available to urban hukou holders.

Although not carried by leading state-run media outlets, Monday's editorial was featured in several influential publications such as the Southern Metropolis Daily and the Economic Observer, and in newspapers with broad geographic coverage, from Inner Mongolia in the north to Yunnan province in the southwest. The editorial was also widely republished on Chinese Internet news portals.

The editorial contrasts the societal division perpetuated by the hukou system with China's constitutional guarantees of equality of all citizens. 'For how many more generations will this division persist?' it asks.

Critics of the system have been calling for reform for years. But so far only fairly superficial changes have been made, and it remains nearly impossible for low-income migrant workers to shift their household registrations to the any of the country's sizable cities.

Still, the hukou system has been getting greater public attention lately, and reforming it is expected to be a topic of discussion at the National People's Congress, the annual full session of the legislature that starts Friday. The authors of Monday's article specifically appealed to the NPC's nearly 3,000 delegates, and those of a government advisory body that also convenes this week, to hasten the pace of reform.

Premier Wen Jiabao highlighted the need for further reform of the system in a public Internet chat session Saturday in response to a question about government efforts to improve the lot of rural migrants.

The government is trying to encourage migrants to settle in smaller cities, but that effort is likely to fail unless such cities can manage to rival the employment opportunities found in the large urban areas favored by most migrants.

Authorities are also studying how to de-link hukou status from the provision of social services as a way of boosting domestic consumption. If migrant workers and their families were able to enjoy benefits in the cities where they live and work on par with urban hukou holders, the thinking goes, they would focus less on saving and sending money back home and more on spending their increased disposable income. But so far, piecemeal measures implemented by local governments have resulted in wide disparity in conditions.

在中国一年一度的“两会”召开前夕，13家中国报纸共同发出了促请中国户籍制度改革的有力呼声，联合刊登社论敦促政府改革户口登记这一将中国人分为农村和城市居民的体制。

周一的社论是中国媒体罕见地联手在事关民生的重要敏感问题上大胆发声。该社论措辞严厉地指出，颁布于上世纪50年代、旨在控制人口流动的《户口登记条例》成为了社会不公的源头和腐败滋生的温床。

民工们周一在南京赶火车，前往华南打工。这篇社论写道：“中国患户籍制度之苦久矣！我们崇信人生而自由，人生而拥有自由迁徙之权利！”

这篇社论清楚地表明，中国官员未能将户籍制度随中国人口形势的变化而快速进行调整，这已引起了公众越来越强烈的不满。自从30年前中国开始经济改革以来，政府针对人员流动的控制已有所松动，允许大批劳动力从乡村来到城市打工。但是，拥有城市户口的居民在教育补贴、医疗保健、购置所在地房产等问题上享受优惠政策，而外来移民则面临诸多限制，往往要支付更多金钱才能在待遇方面和有户口的居民看齐。

虽然这篇社论未能见诸于一些大型国有媒体报端，但它仍为《南方都市报》和《经济观察报》等重量级报纸刊出。而且这13家媒体地理分布广泛，从北方的内蒙古到西南的云南省，同时中国的门户网站也对这篇文章广为转载。

文章指出，户口制度所造成的永久社会分隔有违中华人民共和国公民在法律面前一律平等的宪法精神。文中写道“我们要问，这样的隔离究竟还要持续几代人？”

多年来，批评人士一直在呼吁改革户籍制度。但到目前为止，所有的政策调整仍停留于表面，而且低收入民工将户口迁至中国任何一个大城市的可能性仍是微乎其微。

不过，近来公众对户籍制度的关注度越来越高，预计其改革问题将成为定于周五开幕的全国人民代表大会的主要议题之一。该社论的作者特别呼吁近3000名全国人大代表，以及政协委员加快户籍制度改革。

中国总理温家宝在上周六的公开网聊中回答了一个有关政府将如何改善广大农民工待遇的问题，他当时也强调了改革户籍制度的必要性。

目前中国政府正在鼓励外来务工人员在较小的城市安家落户，但是这一努力可能以失败收场，除非在提供就业机会的问题上小城市能够和大多数民工更青睐的大城市相媲美。

中国政府还在研究如何把户口和社会服务条款相脱钩，以此促进国内消费。如果民工及其家人能和就业地的本地居民享受同等的福利待遇，那么从理论上讲，他们可能就不会再那么关注储蓄及汇钱回家，而是愿意将增长的可支配收入用于消费。但是截至目前，地方政府推出的各项相关措施在适用条件上参差不齐。