People lined up to complete the hukou formalities at the Tianjin Hexi District Administration Permission Service Center in North China's Tianjin on Tuesday. (Photo: Huang Ge/GT)
Cities seeking talent influx may get unintended results
Talented Chinese are flocking to North China's Tianjin in search of a hukou (permanent residence) in the Chinese capital's neighbor, although the Tianjin government has already rolled out several policy "fixes" to ease the rush sparked by a talent plan it released only on May 16.
Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, said that Tianjin, along with other cities, wants more talent to help overcome difficulty in upgrading.
At the Tianjin Hexi District Administration Permission Service Center, people lined up to complete the hukou formalities as early as 7 am on Tuesday, and by 2 pm, there were more than 100 waiting in the heat.
A 30-year-old woman told the Global Times on condition of anonymity that late in the afternoon, she got a reservation number that will allow her to return on Friday to go through a hukou check.
"If everything goes fine, I will get the permit to acquire a hukou in Tianjin on June 2," she said with excitement.
The woman, who now works as an accountant in Beijing, said she decided to get the Tianjin hukou so that her child can go to school in Tianjin, where the success rate on the college entrance exam is high.
A 30-year-old man who also works in Beijing said on condition of anonymity that it's hard to get a hukou in the capital. "Tianjin has developed well, plus it is a livable city. So why not settle here?" he told the Global Times Tuesday.
The heated scramble for a Tianjin hukou was triggered by the city's announcement of a talent attraction plan called "Haihe talent" on May 16. According to the plan, university graduates under age 40, master's degree holders under 45 and doctoral degree holders can directly get a Tianjin hukou. It gives cash bonuses to certain high-end innovative staff, like winners of international and national skill contests.
The government soon announced several policy patches, listing more detailed requirements. For example, people without jobs or homes in Tianjin must first transfer their personal dossiers to the North Talents Market, also located in Tianjin.
Several interviewees told the Global Times that the policy tweaks mean it will take more time to get through the formalities.
An editor from Shanghai, who wanted to remain unidentified, said on Monday that because of the policy patches, she would have to quit her job in Shanghai to get her personal dossier transferred to Tianjin. Therefore, she has temporarily given up the plan to get a Tianjin hukou.
In Cong's view, the Haihe talent plan has deviated from its original goal of attracting innovative workers. "Now people are taking advantage of the policy [to sell houses] or get an advantage in college examinations," he told the Global Times Tuesday.
At the service center, the Global Times saw that many property sellers were handing out house advertisements to the Tianjin hukou candidates.
A real estate broker named Yang Jing told the Global Times on Tuesday that housing prices in Tianjin's downtown area have not fluctuated too much in recent days, but transactions on the outskirts of the city have surged.
"For example, on Saturday alone, 200 units at a new commercial development in the Dongli district of eastern Tianjin were sold, or about the usual volume for nearly two months," Yang said. About 90 percent of the buyers were non-locals, Yang said, while the other deals involved "panic-buying" by local residents.
Tianjin is the most recent example of a city that's launched preferential hukou policies to attract talent. Some smaller cities, like Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei Province, have offered home-purchasing subsidies for top talent.
According to Cong, many cities are having problems making the shift from labor-intensive industries to innovation-driven ones while also grappling with an aging population. These cities need new workers, so they're launching "talent plans."
"In Tianjin, for example, the bottleneck in industrial upgrading lies in the fact that it was too dependent upon overseas-invested companies, but the sector has shrunk significantly in recent years," he said.
It's also possible that smaller cities, highly dependent on land revenues, are using talent policies to stimulate their weak property markets, Cong said.
"But that's a short-term solution, because without mature industrial development, talent won't stay for long."
