Generally Affordable and Functional Housing System
In 1998, the Chinese Government decided to build generally affordable and
functional housing. Affordable and functional housing means housing for which
the government provides preferential policies, and sets the construction
standards, the selling price and the users' qualification criteria. It is
policy-based, security-type commercial housing. Households meeting the following
requirements can apply to buy or rent a suite of such housing: those having
local registered permanent residence permits (including servicemen eligible
under local resettlement standards) or those specified by the city or county
government; those with serious housing problems -- without housing of their own
or with their current housing space below the standards set by the city or
county government; households whose family incomes meet the income standard set
by the city or county government; and households meeting other conditions set by
the city or county government. A low-profit principle is maintained for such
housing when it is sold or rented. Only after a specified length of time
following the purchase of such housing may the owner sell it at the market, and
a portion of the earnings therefrom must be turned over to the government. The
purchase of this kind of housing must be subject to application, examination and
public announcement, thus emphasizing public transparency and strict supervision
and administration. From 1998 to 2003, the construction of 477 million sq m of
such housing space was completed.
The Low-Rent Housing System
Since 1998, the Chinese Government has made active efforts to promote the
low-rent housing system and to continuously improve housing security policies.
Temporary exemption of property tax and business tax is applied to publicly
owned housing and low-rent housing lent out at prices prescribed by the
government. Under the guidance of uniform state policies, the local governments
have setup their own low-rent housing systems for urban minimum-income
households in accordance with the level of local economic and social
development. Such a housing security system, supported mainly by the
government's financial budget while the low-rent funds are pooled from other
channels, is practiced in many ways --with housing rent subsidy as the major
form, supplemented by the supply of basic furniture and rent deduction. For
households whose incomes and housing space are below the standards set by the
local government, the latter should ensure that their basic housing needs are
met by application, registration and waiting one's turn. In 2003, this low-rent
housing system for minimum-income families was established in 35 large and
medium-sized cities.
X. Social Security in Rural Areas
The majority of the Chinese people live in rural areas, where the economic
development level is comparatively low. In the rural areas the land, as a means
of both production and livelihood, is owned collectively where the contractual
household output-related responsibility system is practiced. Under the influence
of China's traditional culture, there is a time-honored tradition of provision
by the family, security coming from self-reliance and help from the clan. In
accordance with the characteristics of rural socio-economic development, the
state's social security measures in rural areas are different from those
practiced in cities.
Experimenting to Establish an Old-Age Insurance System in Rural Areas
The old-age security in China's rural areas is centered mostly on families.
In the 1990s, China began to try out an old-age insurance system in some of the
rural areas in accordance with the actual level of local socio-economic
development. In light of the principle that "The premiums are paid mainly by
individuals themselves, supplemented by collectively pooled subsidies and
supported by government policies," an old-age insurance system with the
accumulation of funds taking the form of personal accounts was established. By
the end of 2003, the work of old-age social insurance had been carried out to
various extents in the rural areas of 1,870 counties (cities, districts). Some
54.28 million people had underwritten the old-age insurance program, which had
accumulated a fund running to 25.9 billion yuan, with 1.98 million farmers
drawing old-age pension. In 2004, the Chinese Government began to experiment
with a system that supports and rewards households that practice family planning
by having only one child or two girls in some of the rural areas. Each person of
such couple may receive a minimum of 600 yuan a year from the age of 60 till the
end of his or her life. This reward will be provided jointly by the central and
local governments.
