Chapter 8 Chapter VII Household Registration and Land

"The large freight elevator that can hold dozens of people is like a sick monster, panting and climbing up to the sixth floor. After the heavy door is opened reluctantly, the first thing people see is the Shenzhen Institute of Contemporary Social Observation. '. This academic name does not seem to be in harmony with the surrounding environment. Many of its 'neighbors' are collective dormitories for workers, and the windows are full of colorful clothes. But its director Liu Kaiming is very satisfied ..." This is the opening line of a report in China's "Economic Observer" three years ago.Three years later, you can still use this passage to describe the office environment of the Shenzhen Institute of Contemporary Social Observation founded by Liu Kaiming.

However, when I went to Liu Kaiming's office, I didn't take the big sick elevator.I didn't know that there was an elevator in this dilapidated building like an old factory building. I "climbed up to the sixth floor" by myself. Liu Kaiming just sent away a Chinese-Canadian scholar.After me, he had another guest.Knowing that I was coming from the UK, he took special care of me and "inserted" me into his originally full schedule of meeting guests. If Wen Tiejun, a Beijing scholar, and I often expressed deep worries and doubts when talking about China's urbanization process, then when talking about the same topic, Liu Kaiming's tone was much more optimistic.

Liu Kaiming believes that urbanization is the only way for all developing countries to achieve modernization, and Chinese cities still have a lot of room for development and for absorbing agricultural population. "It is better for farmers to go to the city than to farm at home. It broadens their horizons and greatly promotes the progress of the whole society." He said. But if you think Liu Kaiming is blind to the problems brought about by urbanization and the plight of migrant workers, then you are wrong.Liu Kaiming wrote a book: "Marginal People", which described and analyzed the helpless "marginal people" status of migrant workers in the city in detail and profoundly; It is a non-profit organization specializing in research, support and training on migrant workers.

Liu Kaiming believes that the most important institutional obstacle that causes China's urbanization to lag behind and makes it difficult for migrant farmers to integrate into urban life is the household registration system.Talking about how China should deal with the household registration system, he was very firm: "It must be abolished. If it is not abolished, the negative effects will continue to increase, and in the end it may destroy the achievements of China's economic development." "Let migrant workers become citizens" - this is a sentence that Liu Kaiming repeatedly emphasized.

But Shanghai scholar Peng Xizhe believes that China should not hastily abolish the household registration system. In the office of Fudan University's liberal arts building, Professor Peng Xizhe, dean of the school's School of Social Development and Public Policy, accepted my interview. "I think, if we look at the household registration system historically, then we can say that in the past 20 years, the household registration system has made the greatest contribution to China's economic development." His point of view really made me I was taken aback, but Professor Peng didn't see the surprise in my heart, and continued to explain his point of view, "We can think of it this way. In the past 20 years, China has achieved rapid economic growth led by the manufacturing industry. Made in China One of the core prerequisites for the industry to become the world's factory is that China has a large amount of cheap labor. Then, China's cheap labor is mainly migrant workers. If China does not have a household registration system, if migrant workers can enjoy all the benefits of urban workers, then China It would not have been possible to maintain such low labor costs for such a long period of 20 years, and it would have been impossible to build China into such a world factory in the past 20 years."

For the first time, I knew that the status of migrant workers as marginalized and amphibious people could be so strangely linked to China's economic growth, but I have to admit that this is probably the truth.Harsh facts, ruthless logic. "The reason why migrant workers can engage in economic activities in cities at a relatively low price is because of their amphibious status." This time, Professor Peng seemed to see the question in my heart, "Because if China does not have a household registration system , migrant workers will hope to have the same lifestyle, the same income, and the same working conditions as urban residents, but now I feel that I am a farmer, my family is in the countryside, and I come to you just to earn some money That’s all, as long as the income I think is acceptable, I will do it, which is a very important prerequisite for the existence of China’s very low labor costs.”

Peng Xizhe admitted that migrant workers made huge sacrifices under the "sweat wage system" with Chinese characteristics. He also admitted that the existence of the household registration system has made the polarization between rich and poor in Chinese cities increasingly serious. From the perspective of anti-poverty in China as a whole, farmers' migration to cities to work is of great help in narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor. It’s more than 1,000 yuan, but when they go to work in the city, their monthly cash income can reach 1,000 yuan, which means that their economic situation in the city is 10 times better than before.”

Of course, Professor Peng also believes that the current household registration system should be reformed to eliminate its negative consequences, but he emphasized that if China wants to reform the household registration system, it should first reform the welfare system, "weakening, or stripping the original household registration system. Those rights, benefits, and treatments that are given to them, and the household registration system will truly return to being a tool for population management.” Another Shanghai scholar, Cao Jinqing, also believes that China cannot hastily abolish the two major systems that have been criticized by the world: the household registration system and the rural land contract system.

Professor Cao Jinqing, director of the Social Development Research Center of East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai, accepted my interview at his home.In his view, the reason why Chinese farmers can accept low wages in the city is because they still have a piece of contracted land in their hometown in the countryside that urban workers do not have. Professor Cao said, smoking one cigarette after another: "Some foreigners asked why labor force in China is so cheap? The correct answer is: Chinese migrant workers contracted land at home, and their income should be the contracted land. If they have no income from contracting land, their wages must rise, otherwise how can they survive? Therefore, the importance of the land contract system arrangement is here. First, it can Lowering wages, second, can maintain social security. This is a great feature of China, and Western scholars who study China issues have not considered this at all.”

As I listened to him, I wondered: Cao Jinqing, who once wrote the famous survey of the "three rural" issues "China by the Yellow River", is also defending the low wages of migrant workers? Cao Jinqing seems to have guessed the doubt in my heart: "In modern society, it is always difficult to justify inequality. However, under the constraints of China's overall economic development level and social security capabilities, even if China wants to Realizing the equal rights of urban and rural residents in this area is also powerless." He continued to smoke another cigarette, "The implementation of a good system also requires many conditions as a prerequisite. Some conditions cannot be met automatically with a good heart. It does require a process of economic development."

The household registration system and the rural land contract system are the two major institutional arrangements that cause the phenomenon of migrant workers with Chinese characteristics and restrict China's urbanization process.Many Chinese scholars have severely criticized these two major systems, and even called for their complete abolition. Cao Jinqing also admitted that these two major systems have indeed brought about many disadvantages and problems, but he emphasized the positive effects of this institutional arrangement: "In In such a large country as China, there has been such a large-scale population transfer and such profound social changes, but there has been no serious social unrest, no large-scale slums, social security is within a controllable range, and cities are not crowded. To the extent of the explosion, and the rural economy is also developing slowly but continuously, a large number of remittances from migrant workers have also flowed to the countryside, maintaining the operation of the rural household economy.” A recent study by Zhang Zheng and Li Jing, scholars of Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, also indirectly proves the importance of "owning a piece of land in the countryside".These two scholars pointed out in their co-authored paper "Migrant Worker Flow and Rural Middle-aged Unemployment" that the so-called "migrant worker shortage" is actually a "young migrant worker shortage", because those non-state-owned enterprises that employ migrant workers only Young migrant workers are needed, not the middle-aged surplus labor force that exists in large numbers in the countryside. When the young migrant workers working in cities now enter middle age, most of them will lose their jobs and have to return to their hometowns. According to Cao Jinqing, since Chinese city governments absolutely do not have the corresponding financial resources to provide unemployment relief and pension insurance for all unemployed farmers, the social security function of the piece of land contracted by farmers is highlighted at this time. In response to Liu Kaiming and other scholars’ appeal to “make migrant workers become citizens”, Cao Jinqing responded: “It is a good wish to turn migrant workers into urban residents, and it occupies a very high moral high ground, but it cannot be done. For example, Shijiazhuang once liberalized the household registration system, but quickly withdrew it. Behind the household registration system is actually a social security issue, which is the huge gap between urban social security and rural insecurity.” Therefore, Cao Jinqing is not afraid of being misunderstood as an "argument for inequality". His views are very clear: in the current situation where social security has not yet covered the whole country, he opposes the hasty abolition of the household registration system and the rural land contract system. But Liu Kaiming believes that this order should be reversed: first abolish the household registration system, and then establish a nationwide social security network. "After the household registration system is abolished, a unified national social security system will be established to provide consistent low-coverage social benefits to all people," Liu Kaiming said. Liu Kaiming believes that the negative effects brought about by the current institutional arrangements have exceeded the positive effects, and the most negative consequence is that the social status and psychological expectations of migrant workers who travel between urban and rural areas like migratory birds do not gradually rise. Instead, it is constantly declining: "The migrant workers should be the elites in rural China, 60% of them have no agricultural work experience, and more than 70% have a junior high school education or above. The average education level of China's rural labor force is higher than that of all developing countries. When they enter cities and factories, they should be employed quickly and work hard to develop upwards. However, all the institutional arrangements in China prevent them from developing upwards. They can reach a certain level, usually within 3 to 5 years. It's great, because all the voices tell you: you don't belong here. He has inner anxiety. But where to go? The manufacturing industry is like this, you can't go up, they keep looking, keep looking , but in addition to disappointment or disappointment, they ended up doing small businesses, but everyone only knew how to open small restaurants and small restaurants, which lowered the competitive price, and made no money, and went lower and lower. We did research in Henan, and many Young people in the countryside sell their strength in the manufacturing industry, middle-aged people pick up garbage in the city, old people, if they build a house at home, they will not go out, but if the child has not married a wife, they will go out to beg. It's very sad." Although Liu Kaiming has a Ph.D. in literature, he specifically emphasized to me that he is also a farmer: he came from an ordinary farm family in Guangxi and entered the city after taking the university entrance exam.According to the "Economic Observer" report, the reason why Liu Kaiming chose this old factory building in Anhua Industrial Zone, Chegongmiao, Futian District, Shenzhen, as the office location of the Shenzhen Institute of Contemporary Social Observation, is that the rent is cheap. In addition, there is another intention: "He wants his more than 30 employees to 'go deep' into the people they serve—the workers—every day." When I finished the interview and said goodbye to him, Liu Kaiming reminded me: "Our building has an elevator." So, he sent me to the elevator entrance, waiting for the elevator to go up slowly, waiting for it to reluctantly open the heavy door, and waiting for me to escape into this panting "big freight elevator".