China: Revising Hukou as a Key to Economic Reform

China's Guangdong province has proposed a plan to revise the "hukou" — China's permanent residency identification system — after the weekend's Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing emphasized hukou reform as one way to restructure the economy. Revising the system to allow freer population movement between rural and urban areas is an important step in promoting urbanization and domestic consumption, which China must do if it wants to achieve true economic reform.