china daily 每日新闻摘要——April 29th

兔斯基

Hukou reform under way in 29 regions across China

The reform of the housing registration, or hukou system, has been under way in most regions in China following the State Council's call to establish a unified household registration system for urban and rural residents in a document issued in 2014.

To date, 29 province-level regions,apart from Beijing and the Tibet autonomous region,haveunveiled official plans on the reform of the housing registration system, according to ChinaNews Service. The plans have in general phased out the so-called urban and rural hukou andreplaced them with more general terms such as residential hukou, family hukou, or collectivehukou.

In mega cities such as Shanghai, Chengdu, Wuhan and Xi'an, point-based hukou policies areprevalent. The policies, despite their variance in different places, generally take into accountthe factors of the legitimacy of a person's job and residence, insurance and a fixed number ofyears he or she has lived in the city.

According to the proposals of the State Council, China should fully liberalize householdregistration in townships and small cities. Some provinces have adopted more relaxedmeasures. Southwest China's Sichuan province, for instance, extends the application of thispolicy to big and midsized cities. Guizhou, also in Southwest China, plans to removethe hukou restrictions in midsized cities, as well as in townships and small cities.

According to the State Council, big cities should not require more than five years of socialsecurity payment for hukou applicants. The time limit has been shorted in some provinces.

Central China's Henan province, for instance, requires two years of payment for the most,while East China's Anhui province, requires a maximum three years of such payment. TheInner Mongolia autonomous region scrapped the requirements on social security payment forHohhot and Baotou cities to relax local hukou access.

兔斯基

Migrant population growth rate slows

China's migrant workforce reached 277.5 million in 2015, an annual rise of 1.3 percent, but the year-on-year growth rate has been decreasing since 2011, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

A report released by the bureau on Thursday said the growth rate dropped 0.6 percent in 2015, and the percentage of workers younger than 40 years dropped 1.3 percent to 55.2 percent. The average age is 38.6, about four months older than in 2014.

The report defines "migrant worker" as a person whose household registration is in a rural area but who doesn't work in the agriculture industry, and those who work outside their hometown for more than six months annually.

The slower growth of the migrant-worker population might be a result of the slower growth of income. According to the report, the average monthly salary reached 3,072 yuan ($472), while the annual growth rate dropped 2.6 points to 7.6 percent. In the manufacturing sector, the growth rate dropped to 6.7 percent; the rate in the construction industry dropped to 4.4 percent.

In addition, 36.2 percent of migrant workers signed contracts with their employers last year, down from 38 percent in 2014, although the rate of signing short-term contracts－contracts for less than a year－grew by 0.3 percentage points.

One percent of migrant workers have unpaid wages owed them, 0.2 percent higher than last year. Unpaid migrant workers, on average had 9,788 yuan in wage arrears in 2015, with year-on-year growth of 2.9 percent.

Unlike State-owned corporations, small-scale construction companies usually don't sign contracts with workers, so the risk of wage arrears is greater, said Cui Hao, deputy director of the Overseas Engineering Company of China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Co.

"We have also noticed there are fewer young workers. Most of our workers are between 40 and 50 years old," he said. "It seems that the younger generation is less willing to do heavy physical labor, even though income in the construction industry is higher."

Wang Jiahui, a 40-year-old carpenter from Jiangxi province, said the contract he signed contains little about welfare, but lots of restrictions.

"I have friends who didn't get paid. They either left with empty hands or took out a lawsuit. But suing employers is a very difficult road," said Wang, adding that he has been working in Guangdong since 1997. "I hope my 15-year-old son can get a good education. I don't want my only son to become a migrant worker."

兔斯基

Xi: Talks key to resolving differences

President Xi Jinping, speaking on the South China Sea issue on Thursday, said China upholds the peaceful resolution of disputes through friendly consultation and negotiation with the countries directly involved.

The president said that for some time developments in the South China Sea have attracted extensive attention.

China "unswervingly safeguards its own sovereignty and relevant rights and interests in the South China Sea," the president said.

Xi made the remarks in Beijing as he addressed the fifth foreign ministers' meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia.

Observers said Xi's remarks come at a time when the US is worsening the situation in the South China Sea by boosting its military presence there, and after the US and the Philippines embarked on joint military drills recently.

Outlining his ideas to increase security in Asia as a whole, Xi said, "We welcome countries outside the region making a positive contribution to peace and stability here and working with Asian countries to promote the security, stability, development and prosperity of Asia."

Su Xiaohui, a researcher of international strategies at the China Institute of International Studies, said Xi's remarks on the South China Sea illustrate two of China's key strategic goals — championing State sovereignty and safeguarding regional stability.

Xi is also sending a message that "China does not accept any attempt to ruin the big picture", and such attempts include the international arbitration sought unilaterally by the Philippines against China, Su said.

The "countries outside the region" mentioned by Xi include the US, which is partly responsible for tension in the South China Sea, Su added.

Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said that the US has recently "grouped" with countries such as the Philippines to "muddy the waters" by staging joint military drills in the South China Sea.

"This is a root cause that prompts militarization of the South China Sea region and rising tension there," Zhang said.

In Singapore on Thursday, China and countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed to "properly control and manage differences", according to a Foreign Ministry release.

The consensus was made as Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Liu Zhenmin and Singapore's Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Chee Wee Kiong co-chaired the 22nd China-ASEAN Senior Officials' Consultation.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of dialogue relations between China and ASEAN.

All parties agreed that China and ASEAN countries should use the anniversary as an opportunity to "strengthen strategic communication, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and properly control and manage differences", the release said.