POPULATION-CHINA: Chinese Capital Turns 'Forbidden City' (1) An Inter Press Service Feature

BEIJING, Nov 18 (IPS) - For the financially hard-pressed Beijing Municipal officials, the new five-figure registration fee for new residents of the city is a way to control and curb the human wave of migrants from the countryside.

But to Shen Guosheng, a engineering student at the prestigious Qinghua University here, the 11,600-dollar fee that took effect this month means the Chinese capital will be off-bounds to those hoping to attend the country's elite universities in Beijing.

Chinese press reports say more than ten percent of the students at the city's universities come from outside Beijing and will be hit by the high registration fee.

"Students already are paying a lot to study in Beijing. So, in the future, if we want to settle here, we will have to pay more," says a student at Beijing University who hopes to work for the central government in the Chinese capital. "How can we bear it?"

Adds Shen, who is from Tianjin: "Beijing is closing itself down. Beijing is closing the doors to all this talent."

Under China's household registration system, each citizen is registered as living in a certain city or village. The people were not allowed to travel or move residence without official approval.

But controls on personal freedoms were relaxed when economic reforms began to open up the country in the 1980s. Travel restrictions were also eased, triggering a large migration of peasants into urban centers such as Beijing and Shanghai.

As much as 80 people have been estimated to have left their farms since. Many of them have ended up in peasant ghettos or on streets, and have been blamed for the rise of crimes in the city.

Now, Beijing has become the first city in China to take a strong stance against the massive influx of people from elsewhere in the country. Aside from imposing the fee on new arrivals hoping to get a permanent registration in the city, Beijing is also taking a census of the so-called 'floating population' of migrants.

The measures came into effect Nov. 10, and any person without an official Beijing citizenship but with residency approval in eight downtown districts and ten suburban districts and counties is now forced to register. Passengers at railroad stations and airports will also be included in the census.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service