Text | Kaifeng
In Beijing and Shanghai, the threshold for household registration has begun to loosen.
A few days ago, Shanghai issued the "Notice on Implementing Special Support Measures for Talents in Helping Resumption of Work and Production", lifting restrictions on settlement for international students from first-class universities.
The world's top 50 colleges and universities return to Chinaand work full-time in Shanghai to directly settle in; for the graduates of thetop 100 colleges and universities, they can apply for settlement in Shanghai full-time industry and pay social security for 6 months.
Coincidentally, just last year, Beijing issued the "Administrative Measures for the Introduction of Graduates in Beijing", which made a big move of "single plan" to grab people.
For the city's key development areas, for the top 200 domestic university graduates with a bachelor's degree or above, the introduction will be carried out separately according to the plan.
Although the scope of deregulation of Beijing and Shanghai is extremely limited, the highest city in the country has finally put down its "retention" and started to rob people, which undoubtedly has an important signal significance.
01
What are the top 50 universities in the world?
In this regard, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security stated that the world university rankings can be determined by referring tothe Times, USNEWS, QS, Shanghai Rankings World UniversityRankings, etc.
These four lists are globally recognized and authoritative university rankings, and there is no lack of reference.
According to the Shanghai Jiaotong University's ranking of the world's top universities, the top 50 universities in 2022 will include world-class universities represented by Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, and MIT.
Among the TOP50 universities, only 2 universities in mainland China were shortlisted: Tsinghua University and Peking University.
Among the TOP100 universities, a total of 7 universities includingTsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, University of Science and Technology of China, Fudan University, and Sun Yat-SenUniversity were shortlisted.(See "20 Cities with the Most University Students in China in 2022")
Of course, the opening of Shanghai this time is aimed at international students from the world's top 100 universities, and graduates from mainland universities are not included.
However, last year, Shanghai had previously introduced a new policy that loosened restrictions on the settlement of fresh graduates from some mainland universities.
These universities, in addition to Tsinghua and Peking University, also have 4 local universities in Shanghai:Shanghai Jiaotong University, Fudan University, Tongji University, and East China Normal University.
In other words, Shanghai has released at least six mainland universities and TOP100 world universities from the settling restrictions.
Beijing, which has stricter household registration thresholds, only has conditions to loosen the thresholds for 7 mainland colleges and universities.
Beijing's plan is to grab people in a separate line, targeting the world's top 200 mainland universities in key industries.
The so-called top 200 universities in the world have been officially interpreted, including only seven universities includingTsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, University of Science and Technology of China, and NanjingUniversity.
These 7 colleges and universities, commonly known as the Qingbei + East China five schools, can be regarded as the first echelon of Chinese colleges and universities.
02
Beijing and Shanghai are the cities with the most stringent household registration thresholds in China.
Even in thefirst-tier cities ofGuangzhou and Shenzhen , there are few obstacles for college students and even college students to settle down.
Inthe second-tier cities represented byZhengzhou, Dalian and Shijiazhuang , zero threshold settlement has already become a trend, and the household registration threshold exists in name only.
However, in Beijing and Shanghai, not only are college students unable to settle down directly, it is even more difficult for masters and doctors to settle down.
Settling in Beijing requires units to provide the “Beijing Entry Index”, which is limited.
This situation has also led to a continuous decline in the rate of graduates from Tsinghua and Peking University in Beijing.
For ordinary college students tosettle in Shanghai, in addition to high-end talents and differentiated settlements in suburban new towns, other conditions such as a7-year residence permitare generally required .
A few years ago,Beijing cracked a caseof reselling the indicators for settlement in Beijing. The gang involved illegally handled the settlement documents and procedures for more than 40 graduates from other provinces and cities. The amount involved in the case amounted to more than 6 million yuan, with an average of hundreds of thousands of yuan per account.
This is still the price of nearly 10 years ago, which shows the high gold content of Beijing and Shanghai accounts and the difficulty of settlement.
03
Beijing and Shanghai are to the left, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are to the right.
According to the analysis of the book "China's Urban Trends", the strictest threshold, coupled with the active depopulation of central urban areas, has led to a long-term stagnation of the population in Beijing and Shanghai, which is in clear contrast to the continuous inflow of population in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
In 2021, Shanghai will only increase by 10,700 people, while Beijing will decrease by 4,000 people. This is the fifth consecutive year of negative population growth in Beijing.
Data shows that the resident population of Beijing has decreased from a peak of 21.954 million in 2016 to 21.88 million in 2021, and the gap with Chengdu, the fourth most populous city, has narrowed significantly.
If we look at the five-year cycle, inthe past five years, the population of Guangzhou and Shenzhen has increased significantly, Shanghai has increased slightly, and Beijing has experienced negative growth.
In the past five years, Shenzhen's resident population has increased by 2.66 million, Guangzhou has increased by 2.02 million, Shanghai has increased by 220,000, and Beijing has decreased by 68,000.
In this context, scrambling for people, especially highly educated talents, has undoubtedly become a rigid need.
04
The robbery war is changing.
According to the analysis of the book "China's Urban Trends",first-tier cities compete for high-end talents, and second-tier cities compete for college students and labor force, leaving little room for third- and fourth-tier cities.
Today, even Beijing and Shanghai have begun to snatch people, and some weak second-tier and third- and fourth-tier tiers have not yet made the mark of "zero threshold to settle down". One step behind is equivalent to countless steps behind.
After all,the gold content of hukou in different cities is very different.
In some weak second-tier and third- and fourth-tier cities, even if the household registration is completely undefended and the door is opened, it may not be able to attract new residents.
After all, settling down with zero threshold is not a weapon in itself to grab people. Only by being one step ahead can it be possible to get a share of the pie.
When all the weak second-tier and third- and fourth-tier cities have all lifted the restrictions on settlement, everyone will return to the same starting point of competition. You have zero threshold and I have zero threshold. Just relying on settlement will have little effect on robbing people.
After all, the dividends of the household registration reform are shared by rain and dew.
When this wave of competition for people comes to an end, cities will return to a new stage of competition for fundamentals.
The hukou itself is about to lose its gold content. At that time, let alone highly educated talents, it may be difficult for even the labor force to grab it.
Urban competition, if you don't advance, you will retreat... For all second-, third- and fourth-tier cities, it will be too late if you don't start to grab people.
