Can anyone tell with authority what is the value of a Shanghai and Beijing City Hukou permit.
Well, I am certainly not an authority, but the permit gives you access to social welfare, education opportunities for your children , healthcare etc.
Also what is the value of a Taiwan, Macua, Hong Kong (Citizenship). Are people from Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong asked to apply for Hukuo permits. Can PRC citizens travel freely into Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong do they need a Hukou permit.
Is this ubranisation that one speaks by PRC being done to "smaller" cities and not major cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
The urbanization IS the smaller cities. You only hear about the big ones though because they are more visible.
Is this a way to placate the rural people into thinking they have upgraded themselves by providing Hukou permits in smaller cities and regions.
The dream of working and living in Beijing and Shanghai is only for certain people. The best treated Chinese in PRC are still the people from Taiwan and Hong Kong, Macau next follows overseas Chinese from American and UK and after that the PRC citizens in big cities and after that PRC citizens in small cities and after that PRC citizens in villages. It is like a caste system.
Social mobility. You dont have that in a caste system. You born a dalit, you die a dalit. Therefore not the same.
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are the top level of Hukua that is beyond the reach of majority of PRC people. Yet the government claims the regions to be "One Country"
Hukou of any major chinese cities are enough, not just those you mentioned
The communist party was built on the support of the countryside. How times have change.
Half of chinese population now lives in the cities.
related to the thread is the below news item:
China's Soviet-Style Suburbia Heralds Environmental Pain - Bloomberg