中國13家媒體聯合發聲 呼籲改革戶籍制度

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.

在中國一年一度的“兩會”召開前夕，13家中國報紙共同發出了促請中國戶籍制度改革的有力呼聲，聯合刊登社論敦促政府改革戶口登記這一將中國人分爲農村和城市居民的體制。

週一的社論是中國媒體罕見地聯手在事關民生的重要敏感問題上大膽發聲。該社論措辭嚴厲地指出，頒佈於上世紀50年代、旨在控制人口流動的《戶口登記條例》成爲了社會不公的源頭和腐敗滋生的溫牀。

民工們週一在南京趕火車，前往華南打工。這篇社論寫道：“中國患戶籍制度之苦久矣！我們崇信人生而自由，人生而擁有自由遷徙之權利！”

這篇社論清楚地表明，中國官員未能將戶籍制度隨中國人口形勢的變化而快速進行調整，這已引起了公衆越來越強烈的不滿。自從30年前中國開始經濟改革以來，政府針對人員流動的控制已有所鬆動，允許大批勞動力從鄉村來到城市打工。但是，擁有城市戶口的居民在教育補貼、醫療保健、購置所在地房產等問題上享受優惠政策，而外來移民則面臨諸多限制，往往要支付更多金錢才能在待遇方面和有戶口的居民看齊。

雖然這篇社論未能見諸於一些大型國有媒體報端，但它仍爲《南方都市報》和《經濟觀察報》等重量級報紙刊出。而且這13家媒體地理分佈廣泛，從北方的內蒙古到西南的雲南省，同時中國的門戶網站也對這篇文章廣爲轉載。

文章指出，戶口制度所造成的永久社會分隔有違中華人民共和國公民在法律面前一律平等的憲法精神。文中寫道“我們要問，這樣的隔離究竟還要持續幾代人？”

多年來，批評人士一直在呼籲改革戶籍制度。但到目前爲止，所有的政策調整仍停留於表面，而且低收入民工將戶口遷至中國任何一個大城市的可能性仍是微乎其微。

不過，近來公衆對戶籍制度的關注度越來越高，預計其改革問題將成爲定於週五開幕的全國人民代表大會的主要議題之一。該社論的作者特別呼籲近3000名全國人大代表，以及政協委員加快戶籍制度改革。

中國總理溫家寶在上週六的公開網聊中回答了一個有關政府將如何改善廣大農民工待遇的問題，他當時也強調了改革戶籍制度的必要性。

目前中國政府正在鼓勵外來務工人員在較小的城市安家落戶，但是這一努力可能以失敗收場，除非在提供就業機會的問題上小城市能夠和大多數民工更青睞的大城市相媲美。

中國政府還在研究如何把戶口和社會服務條款相脫鉤，以此促進國內消費。如果民工及其家人能和就業地的本地居民享受同等的福利待遇，那麼從理論上講，他們可能就不會再那麼關注儲蓄及匯錢回家，而是願意將增長的可支配收入用於消費。但是截至目前，地方政府推出的各項相關措施在適用條件上參差不齊。