CAS to government: Tighten up on hukou
- Source: Global Times
- [08:37 July 30 2010]
- Comments
By Zhang Hui
Beijing will reach zero population growth by 2018, according to the Scientific Development Report 2010 released Wednesday by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
To achieve this, government-sponsored think tanks suggest that the government restrict people moving into Beijing.
China is expected to reach zero population growth by 2030, according to the report, and CAS offers a timetable for 26 provinces and municipalities to achieve that goal.
Shanghai was predicted to achieve zero population growth first by 2015, followed by Tianjin and Beijing, both by 2018.
"Zero population growth is a natural process during population growth and to make it happen in 2018, government policies that set restrictions on obtaining a Beijing hukou would be helpful," Zhou Zhitian, a sustainable development study expert at CAS, said Thursday.
Zero population growth creates a labor shortage and is not conducive to economic development, but sustainable development of all society is more significant, Zhou said.
"Zero population growth definitely won't happen in 2018," said Zhai Zhenwu, head of the School of Society & Population Studies at Renmin University in Haidian district.
"Actually, it won't happen even in the next 20 or 30 years."
Beijing's natural population growth is close to zero, but hukou residency holders only account for 50 percent of the city's total population, Zhai explained.
Beijing gains about 500,000 floating people every year and another 170,000 people become Beijing hukou holders through work transfer, graduation and marriage. These figures have increased in recent years, Zhai said.
Beijing's population reached 19.72 million at the end of 2009, according to research published by the Beijing People's Political Consultative Conference last week.
The figure drew headlines for arriving more than 10 years early of a State Council target of limiting the population to 18 million by 2020.
"Controlling population growth should not rely on setting restrictions on people moving to the city," Zhai said, "and the restriction itself infringes upon people's right to move freely."
Beijing can slow down population growth by gradually changing its labor-intensive industry to technology-intensive industry, and clean out small businesses that demand long working hours for low pay, Zhai suggested.
He also suggested regulating the rental housing market to prevent people from being able to reside in cheap, overcrowded housing without water or electricity.
The report analyzed technological and scientific development among the country's 31 provinces and municipalities, in which Beijing ranked first.
If Beijing can meet its two other zero growth goals - resources consumption by 2025 and environmental degradation by 2054 - then the city will achieve its much-publicized goal of so-called "green development," the report concluded.
