What signal is being released?, Jiangsu and Zhejiang "synchronize" the lifting of household registration restrictions, population transfer, and restrictions

The threshold of registered residence is gradually disappearing.

Whether at the national or provincial level, the relaxation of household registration restrictions has become a trend in policies. The latest two examples are China's two major economic provinces - Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

What signals does this move send behind the fact that they have already or plan to fully lift household registration restrictions?

01

Zhejiang and Jiangsu's "amplification strategy"

Recently, according to the Jiangsu Provincial Development and Reform Commission, opinions were publicly solicited on several policy measures to promote sustained economic recovery and support high-quality development in the province. The main content of this opinion draft consists of 18 articles, among which, in terms of "orderly promoting the urbanization of agricultural transfer population", it is proposed to clarify that the province will completely abolish the policy of household registration restrictions, and implement a household registration system based on the place of habitual residence to ensure the uniformity of standards for rural and local agricultural transfer population entering the city for household registration.

More than half a month ago, Zhejiang Province, a neighboring province of Jiangsu, also issued two documents. The province has completely lifted the policy of household registration restrictions, ensuring that the standards for migrant workers from other regions and local agricultural areas entering the city are unified. The system of registering household registration based on their place of habitual residence has been implemented, and policies for legal and stable household registration and the relocation of spouses and other direct relatives have been implemented.

This means that recently, China's two major economic provinces have been simultaneously relaxing household registration policies, with only a few regions within the province fully relaxing household registration restrictions.

Several areas that are not fully liberalized have also explicitly proposed to relax household registration restrictions in the new policies. For example, the draft for soliciting opinions in Jiangsu proposes to further improve the point based household registration policy in the urban areas of Nanjing and Suzhou, ensuring that social security payment years and continuous residence years account for the main proportion, and encouraging the differentiation of main urban areas, suburbs, new areas and other areas based on the comprehensive carrying capacity and functional positioning of the city, and the classification of household registration policies. The urban area of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province will further improve the point based household registration policy, ensuring that the proportion of social security payment years and continuous residence years is the main proportion, and gradually lifting the annual household registration quota restrictions.

02

Multiple provinces have lifted household registration restrictions

Whether at the national or provincial level, the relaxation of household registration restrictions is a trend in many places.

From the national level, in July 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Fourteenth Five Year Plan" New Urbanization Implementation Plan, which requires deepening the reform of the registered residence system, opening up and easing the restrictions on settlement except for individual megacities, and piloting the household registration system with regular residence. Fully lift the household registration restrictions for cities with a permanent population of less than 3 million in urban areas, and ensure that the standards for rural migrant workers entering cities are treated equally with those from other regions. Fully relax the conditions for settling in Type I large cities with a permanent population of 3 to 5 million in urban areas. Improve the point based household registration policy for mega cities with a permanent population of over 5 million in urban areas, streamline point based programs, ensure that social insurance payment years and residential years account for the main proportion, and encourage the lifting of annual household registration quotas.

Not long ago, the Ministry of Public Security held a special press conference on "Service Guarantee for High Quality Development". At the meeting, the relevant person in charge reiterated the above policy. At the same time, the public security department has further relaxed the conditions for the establishment of collective households, encouraging various regions to establish collective households in talent markets, creative spaces, and towns or villages, in order to better facilitate the settlement of the masses.

From the perspective of provinces, Zhejiang and Jiangsu are not the first.

In January 2021, Jiangxi Province announced the comprehensive relaxation of the conditions for urban household registration throughout the province, the complete lifting of restrictions on urban household registration, and the basic requirement for household registration migration being having a legal and stable residence or legal and stable employment. The restrictions on participation in social security, length of residence, and length of employment will also be lifted.

In June 2021, the Development and Reform Commission of Hubei Province issued the "Key Points for New Urbanization and Urban Rural Integration Development in the Province in 2021", which deeply relaxed and relaxed urban household registration restrictions, lifted household registration restrictions in other areas of the province except for Wuhan, further lowered the threshold for household registration in Wuhan, and implemented a mechanism for completing household registration transfer within the province.

On June 1 this year, the Heilongjiang Provincial Public Security Department released the "New Measures for registered residence Registration Management of Heilongjiang Provincial Public Security Organs" on its official website. It was mentioned in the article that urban towns across the province have completely lifted the restrictions on settlement and achieved "zero threshold". According to the Measures, if the public has a need to settle down in their regular place of residence, they can provide relevant proof and settle down with their application. For those who have fixed housing, they will be registered with the community collective household registration of the police station. For those who do not have fixed housing, the goal of registering household registration with their regular place of residence will be achieved in urban areas throughout the province.

According to incomplete media statistics, at least 18 provinces in China have lifted or relaxed household registration restrictions since 2020.

03

What does opening up household registration mean?

As is well known, people are the fundamental and most active factor in the development of a place. To some extent, the gradual relaxation of household registration restrictions in various regions is a manifestation of competition for talent and population.

Analysis has pointed out that from a macro perspective, China's economy has entered a stage of high-quality development from a high-speed growth stage. How to further promote urbanization, expand consumption potential, and even cultivate new growth drivers, and cancel household registration, are all key factors. From the urban perspective, when the national population reaches its peak and population growth is weak, the ability to attract and retain people becomes the key to future urban competition.

According to articles related to the intersection of Jiangsu media, Zhejiang's net population inflow is in a leading position nationwide. However, from 2010 to 2020, and in the past three years, the net population inflow has decreased. Moreover, the birth rate of the local population in Zhejiang, that is, the population with registered residence in Zhejiang, has always been low and weak. In many places, it has even declined, showing negative growth.

Jiangsu is similar to Zhejiang. On March 3, the Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Statistics released the "2022 Jiangsu Province National Economic and Social Development Statistics Bulletin", which showed that the total population of Jiangsu maintained a positive growth in 2022. At the end of the year, the province's permanent resident population was 85.15 million, an increase of 100000 people from the end of the previous year, only an increase of 0.1%. It is worth noting that the natural population growth rate in Jiangsu in 2021 was -1.1 ‰, which is the first time since the establishment of the People's Republic of China that the annual natural population growth rate in Jiangsu has turned negative.

As is well known, the permanent population of over ten million has always been one of the key indicators for measuring the level of urban development in China. As of the end of 2022, the permanent population of Nanjing, Xuzhou, Wenzhou, and Ningbo in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions is all over 9 million. For the two provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, this coincidental meeting has a common vision, which is to help more cities enter cities with millions of people.

The analysis of Liberation Daily pointed out that Zhejiang's "Plan" is seeking to "compete for talent" outside the province and "civilize" within the province, both of which constitute two logical lines for understanding the "Plan". Its purpose is to retain more talents from other regions and encourage more people from within the province to enter the city.

Some analysts believe that over a million people may benefit from the policies introduced in Zhejiang this time. Taking Hangzhou as an example, according to media calculations, according to the adjusted points settlement method in Hangzhou, a non local person under the age of 40 with a high school education can earn 100 points as long as they live in Hangzhou for 4 years and pay social security for 4 years. If they participate in activities such as voluntary blood donation and community volunteer work, they can also earn additional points, and the settlement deadline will be further shortened.

Relaxing or relaxing household registration restrictions is also beneficial in other aspects, such as stimulating consumption.

Liu Peilin, Chief Expert of the Regional Coordinated Development Research Center of Zhejiang University, believes that lifting household registration restrictions or lowering thresholds is beneficial for stimulating consumption. He analyzed that allowing people to freely move in space and integrate into relatively suitable regions can continuously optimize the spatial combination and configuration pattern with other production factors in the process of achieving personal development through mobility, and the development pattern of urban and rural areas will also change accordingly. A series of changes drive the development of consumption, industry, and real estate markets, as well as the formation of new patterns.

Regarding the policy combination of relaxing household registration restrictions in Zhejiang, Professor Wu Yuzhe from the School of Public Administration of Zhejiang University believes that from a macro perspective, this is in line with the development requirements of the new urbanization advocated at the national level, and can also meet the demand for human resources in the development of the private economy.