Starting with the urban-rural divide

Chi's plan suggests that in one to two years, household registration should be waived among middle cities and small towns.

But Tang Jun, secretary-general of the social policy research center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Chi's plan would be complicated.

"There are far fewer job opportunities in middle and small cities than first-tier piers.

"So even if we abolish the hukou in smaller cities, people would still flock to bigger cities looking for jobs, which would trigger a population explosion that would be overwhelming," he said.

Starting this month, authorities in Guangzhou have taken the lead in Guangdong province by scrapping the household registration system, enabling farmers to enjoy the same training, education and pensions benefits as urban residents.

Zheng Zizhen, a researcher and former dean of the Sociology and Population Institute at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, said that reforming the hukou system should be accompanied by social welfare improvements, rather than the mere change in the details of a residence booklet.

He urged government departments to offer farmers the same levels of social welfare as urban citizens.

Lei Xiaokang, deputy dean of the School of Public Administration at Northwest University, said a gradual approach is needed.

But he added pilot trials to waive the hukou system in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, illustrated just how difficult the process could be - the program had to be stalled quickly, as fiscal budgets became overstretched due to the sudden influx of people.