By EO Editorial Board

Issue 605, Jan 28, 2013

News, cover

Translated by Zhu Na

Original article: [Chinese]

After it was revealed that the entire family of the recently exposed "little house sister" (房妹) in Zhengzhou had two sets of identity papers (or hukou), people have taken to joking online that China doesn't really have 1.3 billion people, as many people have a "dual hukou" (双户口).

Internet users were further shocked to discover that a "dual hukou" was nothing special, when a "big house sister" (房姐) in Shaanxi was revealed to have four hukou. One of the four official identities that Gong Aiai (龚爱爱) possessed was a much sought after Beijing hukou. Currently, investigators have discovered that under her various identities, this former deputy head of a rural bank, owned two properties in Shenmu, two in Xi’an and three in Beijing.

For someone to have multiple hukou is a much bigger deal than simply owning multiple properties. If someone is found to own many houses, they can defend themselves by claiming that the properties were bought using legal income. But there's nothing they can say when they've been shown to hold multiple hukou. According to China’s household registration rules, a citizen can only be registered as a permanent resident in a single location. It's impossible that Gong obtained her four hukou legally.
Although this might seem quite "extraordinary," it's actually quite a common occurrence in China. 

Other cases that have been revealed recently include that of Tao Yong (陶勇),  the former head of a public security bureau in a county in Anhui province who abused his power to get a fake ID card for himself in order to accept kickbacks and hide his ill-gotten gains. Chen Wenzhu (陈文铸), the former head of a local office of China Tobacco (烟草局) in Guangdong, was found to have used a fake ID to travel to and from Macao on gambling trips for six years. There are even more officials holding "dual hukou" that have not yet been outed.

The first question is why these officials are able to get multiple hukou? 

China’s household registration system has always been very strict. It is totally impossible for an ordinary citizen to get more than one ID card. 

Even 500,000 yuan won't guarantee that you can get a Beijing hukou on the black market. In order to get this precious paper, many people choose to take part in an entrance exams for a graduate school or take an MBA exam and then spend even more money to get a Beijing hukou. Even if  you have money, if you don't meet certain criteria, you won't be able to get a hukou in the capital.

If you claim that all the “dual hukou” of these officials are caused by data entry errors,  you won't be fooling anyone. It's only through the help of corrupt people working inside the public security organs that such dual identities can be procured. As the head of a local public security bureau, it was very easy for Tao Yong to cheat the system, then how easy will it be for other people to act in the same way? 

Why would people working in our public security agencies be willing to help out the Gong Aiai's of this world?

To put it simply, they either fear power or are tempted by what they can get. If it's fear of power, that means that people with authority are interfering with the management of the household registration system. If they are motivated by personal gain, this means that powerful people are corrupting the household registration administration.

In this sense, when dealing with the “little house sister” scandal in Zhengzhou and the “big house sister" scandal in Shenmu , we cannot simply stop at revoking their illegal hukou. We also can't stop at simply investigating individual employees within public security bureau who were involved in the scandal. We need instead to launch an investigation into all those hidden “dual hukou” holders across the country. At the same time, we need to think about why the carefully designed household registration system is so susceptible to corruption. Actually, the design of the system is only the first step, whether or not it can be effectively implemented and effectively supervised is the key.

In addition, we also need question closely, why officials are so fond of hukou? 

There are two reasons. The first and most important is that they can use a fake identity to evade the long arm of China's anti-corruption departments. It is like a game of cat and mouse. If the Central Commission Discipline Inspection wants to push ahead with plans to have officials declare their assets  or if the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development wants to establish a property database,  it doesn’t matter, corrupt officials can simply get a second hukou in order to avoid being detected. This is just another countermeasure in addition to other moves that corrupt officials have taken to protect their ill-gotten gains like sending their spouse and children abroad.

Zhang Yan (张彦), an official working in Shanxi's Yuncheng discipline inspection commission is another example. Zhang has both a Shanxi and Beijing hukou. Her father-in-law was the former head of Yuncheng's finance bureau. Her Shanxi ID card was used to purchase properties and transfer assets for both her husband and father-in-law.
 
This brings more challenges for those who are engaged in the fight against corruption. Even though the assets of officials may gradually be made public, who can guarantee that this information is genuine? Did those countries which have already successfully introduced policies that require officials to declare their assets ever consider that the system could be undermined at its core by officials making use of false identities?

The other reason that officials need more than one hukou is that at present there are still many benefits attached to having a certain hukou. The government still uses household registration to allocate scarce resources and to bestow special rights and interests. 

Having more than one hukou means that an individual can bypass restrictions placed on property purchases, including having access to preferential interest rates when buying a second house.

Having more than one hukou means that an individual can have access to affordable housing.

Having more than one hukou, especially if it's the much sought after permit indicating that you're a permanent resident of Beijing or Shanghai, also means that your children will find it easier to get into a good university. 

For all these reasons,  a household registration is more likely to become something that can be abused by rent-seeking officials and a breeding ground for corruption.

Thus, we cannot be content that hukou reform remains stalled. 

We must have the courage to get rid of all these special privileges that are currently attached to hukou.
 
We should return to the situation where a household registration is simply used as a proof of a citizen's identity and as a useful tool in the collection of population statistics.