Ongoing debate

The draft guideline on hukou reform has been the subject of debate between scholars and applicants.

Wang Taiyuan, an administration expert at the People's Public Security University of China, told China Newsweek that the bar for the points system should only be high enough to meet the purposes of population control.

Wang, who helped formulate the draft, said the changes are primarily aimed at benefiting exceptional talents and people who have made exceptional contributions to the capital.

Kang Lan, an assistant researcher on hukou reform at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said the Beijing draft seems to be a punishment targeting the capital's migrant workers.

"Even though they do not fit into the category of high-level talents, migrant workers have made an undeniable contribution to the city over the years. There is no reason not to give them citizenship status," she said.

According a survey conducted by the China Youth Daily, which polled more than 3,000 Beijing residents without hukou, more than 81 percent of respondents said the bar for the credit points system had been set too high.

Moreover, about 25.5 percent of those contacted said the requirement that applicants must have made social insurance payments for seven consecutive years is the most difficult to satisfy, while about 59 percent said that they could never obtain hukou under the conditions outlined in the draft.