China enacts rules on new residence permit

BEIJING - A draft regulation on new residence permit has taken shape, Chinese Vice Minister of Public Security Huang Ming said Saturday at the parliamentary session.

The ministry is soliciting public opinions on the draft rules and will submit a final version to the State Council for examination "as soon as possible," Huang said.

China is currently running a household registration system, or hukou. Every Chinese must be registered in a household and the household account is closely related to social security and public service.

People having household registration in different places enjoy varied social welfare policies. For example, those registered in rural households enjoy different policies from those in urban households.

Hukou has long been considered hindering people from migration, especially for migrant workers from rural areas. It prevents them from settling down in cities and enjoying the benefits of urban public services.

Several big cities have tried to adopt a new residence permit system to improve the household registration. A person can apply a residence permit in a city, where he or she is living but not registered in any local household, and thus can enjoy equal treatment from those registered.

So far there is no national regulations on the new residence permit.

In addition, Huang said that the police are building a national database on personal information of citizens so as to improve social management and service.