China will grant young migrant workers more social service benefits and help them rent or buy homes in smaller cities, a government adviser said yesterday.
For decades, China has restrained migration by linking access to low-cost public services like health care and education to a person’s registered place of residence. The system means rural migrants in Shanghai, Beijing and other big cities are deprived of many essential benefits and services.
Han Jun (韓俊), a senior research fellow at the Development Research Center, a think tank that advises China’s Cabinet, said a policy paper released last month made it clear that the government is “striving for substantial reform of the household registration system” to allow migrants, especially younger ones, to register in cities.
However, the reform plan aims to get migrants registered in cities and townships close to their home villages — not expensive places like Beijing or Shanghai where migrants flock for construction and service sector jobs.
“A farmer would have to live several lifetimes before he could afford an apartment in Beijing,” Han said. “This reform will be mainly focused on moving rural migrants into smaller cities and townships.”
The government will expand infrastructure in those smaller cities so migrants can obtain schooling for their children, employment opportunities, social security aid and home ownership rights, Han said.
Han said priority would be given to younger migrants but didn’t elaborate and said the changes would be gradual.
China has about 240 million rural migrant workers, including about 150 million that work in big cities.
Han also said that the government is considering reforms to its election law to increase the number of rural representatives that can be elected to the legislature. Han said the current ratio — one deputy for every 960,000 rural residents and for every 240,000 urban residents — is unfair and discriminatory.
A proposal to allow more rural deputies has already been passed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Han said. The committee’s stamp of approval indicates it will likely be passed when delegates gather for their annual legislative session early next month.
“I believe this is an important and positive development,” Han said.
China’s leaders are worried about lagging rural areas, where thousands of protests a year over living conditions and perceived government indifference threaten to undermine social stability.
The central government announced at the end of last month that it would significantly boost its budget for rural areas though an official figure has yet to be disclosed. Last year, the government spent 764.1 billion yuan (US$111.8 billion ) — a 120 billion yuan increase from the previous year.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not