"Hukou is a vital institution influencing China's labor market and internal migration, and it is under reform. Small and medium cities with under 5 million permanent urban residents have now fully lifted hukou restrictions. However, in bigger cities, public services tied to hukou status still treat non-local permanent residents differently. Efforts are ongoing to address this.
The end goal is that after several years of reform, people can move freely, and hukou will become just a registration of where you live, not determinant of your access to public services. The central government has clearly signaled this reform direction."
Resolution criteria:
This question will resolve YES when, broadly speaking*, any PRC citizen can move to any Chinese city and access government services without onerous restrictions.
It will resolve NO if this does not happen before 2030.
*I will make an exception if some groups or individuals are not able to do this, but it is clear that there is a different primary motivating factor. For example, if Uyghurs or Tibetans were not allowed free movement to eastern Chinese cities but other ethnic groups in Western China were.
