The term “Low-end Population” appears in Chinese state media around 2010 where it was used to refer to the migrant workers who work in lower income jobs in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Since then the term was used in official documents issued to restrict migration and control population in cities. Overpopulation in China’s major cities has always been a social problem for the CCP. Because of hukou system, people receive their benefits, health cares and social security according to the location they register their hukou. While such system was established to better allocate resources and manage population, it also create barriers for migrant workers. Most of the low-end population that the official documents refer to are those to do not own the certificate of registration in these major cities. That is why they are not secured by the government. Even for a lot of people who are not considered to be “low-end”, acquiring a hukou in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen also takes a long time and certain amount of capital (e.g. you have to own an apartment in the city). Migrant workers who works in lower income jobs usually live in small units that are divided by landlords which often does not comply with safety protocols. On Nov. 18, a fire broke out in a building in Beijing’s southern Daxing suburb, killing 19 people including eight children. Most of the victims were migrants who had come to Beijing from other parts of the country. According to local authorities, around 400 people lived in cramped conditions in the two-story structure, which also served as a workshop and refrigerated warehouse for local vendors. Nearly 20 people including managers and electricians of the building have been detained over the fire. In response to the tragedy, the Beijing government kicked off a 40-day citywide safety inspections, with a particular focus on warehouses, rental compounds, wholesale markets, and other constructions on the rural-urban fringes across Beijing. The campaign aims to demolish illegal dwellings on short notice, effectively leaving thousands of people living in Beijing’s outskirts homeless overnight. Chinese Netizens on Weibo and WeChat started to use the term low-end population on these platforms and generated a trending hashtag. Some of them think that the government should regulate the migrant population into the cities, other think that what the government did was inhumane. The platforms, under the pressure of the Administration of Cyberspace, deleted the hashtag and censored the post that contain the term.
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