The Hukou: China's Great Lottery of Life

[Click for Chinese Version]

Many of us have bought lottery tickets, and some of us have won. Regardless of our luck, though, gambling is a personal decision. And we accept the consequences of these choices, whether win or lose.

Our most important lottery ticket, however, is one we have no choice over, even though it affects our very lives. It's the circumstances into which we are born. Some are born without a limb, some with extraordinary IQs. Some are born with impaired senses, others with natural beauty. Some are born with silver spoons into wealthy families, while others are raised with groaning bellies by destitute parents.

We have no choice but to live with our circumstances. Is this fair? Of course not. But there is nothing we can do. If  born ugly and weak into a poor family, all I can do is sigh and maybe say "bad luck."

Fortunately, justice is a major principle around which modern society is formed. We do our best to ensure an equal start for all. We enact legislation to eliminate all types of prejudice and provide all kinds of welfare.

Even though we can't prevent beautiful women from becoming movie stars, we can prevent schools from accepting students based on looks. Even though the best athletes may be the strongest, we can make life more convenient for the disabled. We cannot deprive the wealthy of their property, but we can use taxes to redistribute wealth so that a few do not control all the money. We cannot give gold and silver to all poor people, but we can use public resources to give them clothes to wear and books to read.

Simply put, a responsibility of modern government is to limit the force of bad luck and prevent certain people from falling too far behind. Some countries are very liberal in their approach to this matter, implementing high taxes and comprehensive welfare. Other countries are very conservative, choosing not to intervene.

Regardless of the approach, most people support the principle of equality. However, something strange is happening in China. Not only is the government doing little to mitigate the effects of every person's figurative "lottery ticket," but in fact it's encouraging gaps between people. It's doing this by maintaining an old, broken system that guarantees every Chinese person starts life on an unequal footing. It's called the hukou system.

Voices have been heard recently calling for reform of the hukou system. Just before this year's "two sessions" in March – meetings of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference – more than 10 media organizations jointly published an unprecedented editorial calling for changing the hukou system.

On the surface, the editorial expressed support for the right of Chinese people to move freely in their country. But on a deeper level, it was a statement calling for equality – a plea to give migrant workers from rural areas the same treatment enjoyed by residents of the cities where they live and labor.

China's migrant phenomenon is unlike any other. Laborers flock to cities for construction and basic jobs most city dwellers are unwilling to do. They become an integral part of the cities. But in terms of housing, healthcare and education, migrant workers receive none of the benefits granted city residents. This is not because they are poor, but because they do not have a hukou, or permanent residency permit, for the city where they spend most of the year.

And the numbers of migrant workers are not small. In many cities, this labor pool comprises up to a half of the urban population. In essence, every large Chinese city is exploiting large numbers of people who live there but are not considered local citizens.

The most basic ways to be counted as a citizen in any country are through birthright (jus soli) and ancestry (jus sanguinis). Few question the fairness of these approaches. We don't have anything like a "global citizenship," so we have to organize people according to the laws of sovereign countries. Yet we find this same approach difficult to accept when a country organizes its own people based on family background.

India's caste system and feudalism have drawn much criticism because they are based purely on the circumstances into which people are born; their figurative lottery tickets become a reality for their existence.

In China, a hukou is not just a piece of paper. It represents one's rights and benefits. In this respect, it's like a property deed, with a complex social construction. But if we find it unacceptable to prevent some people from obtaining wealth, why do we accept a system that makes it impossible (or extremely difficult) for some people to have citizenship rights?

True, every Chinese farmer has a home and field to till, while unemployed city dwellers can't eat without welfare. This has always been one of the arguments supporting the hukou system. But in today's China, where differences between city and countryside are so great, and land has been heavily exploited, the basis for this argument is no longer relevant.

There are many concerned about the difficulties that would arise if the hukou system were abolished. Some worry that cities would be unable to absorb a sudden influx of peasants. Some say the hukou system guarantees cheap labor that helps the economy grow.

Of course, changing the system would require tackling technical obstacles. But we cannot let a few obstacles stand in the way of our principles. If we let technical points overshadow principles, we may as well ask the government to abandon justice and, instead, buy every newborn baby a lottery ticket.