China plans to reduce the population of those unregistered for “hukou” (official residence) by further improving its registration system, according to a State Council document released on Jan 14.

Due to certain policy barriers, the civil rights of citizens without “hukou”, such as those born outside the former family planning policy or without medical birth certificates, have not been well protected. The unregistered population has also been considered obstacles to the reform of the household registration system.

The State Council has thus decided to forbid related government departments from setting any preconditions for “hukou” registration. It also laid out details for current “hukou-less” citizens to register for residence status.

In addition, the State Council urged local governments to determine the number of people without “hukou” and improve support policies to help advance the initiative.