Editor's note: In the Government Work Report submitted on March 5, Premier Li Keqiang proposed that close attention should be paid to reforming the household registration system and the restrictions on transferring the registration should be eased. He also called for the formulation and implementation of city group planning o move forward the urban integration development of basic infrastructure and public services and control the large city population as well. On 30 July, 2014, the State Council issued an order stating that a new household registration system should be completed by 2020, helping around 100 million people migrate to cities from rural areas.

Household registration reform is part of the comprehensive reform aimed at rights and the welfare system related to the household. The reform should establish a unified system of education, health, family planning, employment, social security, housing, land and population statistics related to urban and rural household registration systems. The goal of the reform process is not to eliminate the household registration system but to strengthen the rights and benefits and to bury the difference between urban and rural residents and provide fair public services to everyone.

China Youth Daily, March 13

What surprises at the policy level is that the unified household registration is facing opposition at the rural level. To reform the system, some of the basics can be: To give the farmers a truly fair identity and to make up for the decades of deficiencies in the Marchket price. In another word, implement the reforms by compensation. Another is collective land privatization; otherwise the unified household registration system will start a new round of deprivation.

@ObserverWu Chunbo

Sina Weibo, March 9

The household registration reform is a comprehensive one. It covers the household registration system reform, residence permit reform as well as a number of relevant policies like education, medical service, employment, finance, banking etc., which emphasizes the interests of people and focuses on people in the new-age of urbanization.

Huo Xuexi, member of CPPCC and assistant principal of Northwest A&F University

People's Daily, March 13

Some think they should sell their house in their hometown and move to cities and become urban residents. It is a big mistake. First, it’s highly unlikely that the rural land will fetch much money. Second, where will they go if things don’t work out in the city and they are unable to pay the rent?

Urbanization, whether at home or abroad, should be carried out in a natural process. For instance, a migrant from Ningbo or some other place works in Shanghai, and then he brings his family when he gets established. It may take three or four generations to move a family from rural area to the city and integrate into the urban life.

Chen Xiwen, member of CPPCC and deputy director of the Central Rural Work Leading Group

The Beijing News, March 13

It is a well-known fact that there are more than a dozen departments managing the household registration system, which makes the departments heavily segmented. The phenomenon of passing the buck is rife, and different departments work against each other. This ties the residents in a knot.

Wan Haiyuan, Associate Researcher at Macroeconomic Research Institute of the national development and Reform Commission

South Reviews, Feb 27