“On Your Own Land, You Are Only ‘Temporarily Allowed to Exist’”
— The Brutal Truth of Institutionalized Enslavement in China, As Revealed by the “Temporary Residence Permit”
作者：周君红
编辑：周志刚 责任编辑：罗志飞 翻译：鲁慧文
在这个世界上，几乎没有哪个国家像中国那样，对自己的人民说出这样的话：“你虽然是国民，但你在这片土地上，仅仅是暂时被允许存在。”
它不是对外国人说的，不是对非法移民说的，而是对——在同一个国家出生、长大、纳税、打工的中国人说的。这个扭曲的逻辑，通过一种几乎所有普通人都耳熟能详的制度传递出来：暂住证。
一：“暂住”这两个字，本身就是羞辱
当你听到“暂住”这两个字时，请暂停几秒钟，认真咀嚼它的含义—— 它意味着你不属于这里。你是外来者，你没有扎根的资格，你只是“暂时允许住在这里”的人。哪怕这块土地是你的祖国，哪怕你只是从贵州搬到广州，从河南来到北京，在制度眼中，你依然是“外地人”，你必须被登记、被限制、被区别对待。
这个赤裸裸的公民等级制度告诉你：不是每一个中国人都被平等对待的。
二、从“暂住证”到“城市边缘人”：制度制造的漂泊身份
暂住证制度始于上世纪90年代，伴随着城镇化进程兴起而来。本意是为了“管理流动人口”，但真正的效应却是：将成百万上千万进城务工的农民工、基层劳工、异地工作者打上了“非法居住”的烙印。
一个人在祖国的大地上打工、生活、纳税，却要被贴上“暂住”标签，不仅需要花钱办理证明，而且面临种种限制：
—— 没有暂住证，不能租房、不能找工作；
—— 孩子无法就近上学、无法参加高考；
—— 医疗、社保等城市公共服务统统无权享用；
—— 随时可能被清查、被驱赶、被遣返。
这不是制度设计上的疏漏，这是刻意制造的身份降格机制。一个“暂”字，不仅让无数人活成了城市的边缘人，也让他们对“安家落户”这四个字彻底失望。
三、这是中国式种姓制度，不输印度
如果你以为“暂住证”只是个旧政策，那么不妨看看它的演化：“暂住证”虽然名义上在一些城市被废除，但它换了名字，变成了“居住证”、“积分落户制”、“外来人口管理档案”。换汤不换药，它的本质依然是：用户籍和行政壁垒把一个国家的人民人为分为不同等级的人群。
户籍制度，是这套歧视结构的基础，而“暂住证”制度，则是它的延伸和暴力执行机制。它们共同组成了一个现代版的种姓体制：
—— 农村户口与城市户口天差地别；
—— 本地人与外地人资源悬殊；
—— 户口成了孩子的命运起点，也成了你是否有资格“做市民”的通行证。
你不是“暂住”的，你是“被隔离”的；你不是“管理对象”，你是被标记的廉价劳动力。
四、你为什么不能自由迁徙？因为政权不信任你
在世界上大多数国家，公民拥有最基本的权利之一：自由迁徙。你想从德州搬到纽约，从巴黎搬到里昂，只要能自食其力，没人会拦你。但在中国，“你搬到哪”不是你的自由，而是权力能否“批准你存在”。这种不信任体现在每一层制度中：
—— 你没有本地户口？抱歉，孩子不能入学。
—— 你没有办居住证？对不起，这里不接诊你。
—— 你没积分？那你永远别想“落户”，你就是漂泊者。
在中共眼中，人民不是国民，而是可以调配的生产资源。 迁徙、安居、扎根，不是你的权利，而是政权“发给你”的恩典。
五、这不是现代国家，这是殖民式管理
在你自己的国家、自己的语言、自己的文化中生活，却要“申请是否可以留下”——这不是现代国家的公民待遇，而是殖民地对被管理者的态度。
更讽刺的是，在某些城市里，一个白人留学生可以轻松居住、领补贴、上大学；而一个在工地上辛苦三十年的中国农民工，却要三代积分才能换来一张落户证。
当一个国家对自己的人民都不信任、不接纳、不平等，却对外国人毕恭毕敬时，我们必须正视：这不是开放，这是身份歧视的制度性黑洞。
六、从灵魂层面看：这是对人类存在权的否定
从高维角度看，每个生命来到世界，都拥有天赋的居住权、行动权、表达权。“国民”不是一种行政身份，而是灵魂在这片土地上应被尊重的存在形式。
但“暂住证”的逻辑却是：你必须先证明你配得上活在这里，配得上生活，配得上扎根。你必须忍辱负重，努力“积分”，努力成为“可以留下的那类人”。
这不是人类文明，这是对生命本质的践踏。
七、终结这种羞辱，不是换名字，而是解体整个体制
别再说“暂住证早取消了”，因为它没有真的消失，只是伪装得更好。只要你还必须“靠积分落户”， 只要孩子还因为户口被排斥在学校门外，只要有无数人被清理、被驱赶、被赶回原籍，这套羞辱制度就还在运行。
我们要的不是名义上的废除，不是换个词就叫“改革”。 我们要的，是对“公民权”最基本的尊重，是对“自由迁徙”的恢复，是对“平等居住”的承认。 你不是“暂时活在中国”的人， 你是这片土地的天然主人。你不需要一张许可证来证明你存在，你的存在，本身就是最高的合法性。
尾声：
当一个国家用“暂住证”羞辱自己的人民，它已经不再是一个人民的国家。当人民失去了自由迁徙与归属的权利，它也终将失去人民的心。我们终有一日，要亲手撕掉这张制度的铁牌， 让每一个人都能理直气壮地站在自己的土地上，不再是“暂住”，而是——真正地活着。
“On Your Own Land, You Are Only ‘Temporarily Allowed to Exist’”
— The Brutal Truth of Institutionalized Enslavement in China, As Revealed by the “Temporary Residence Permit”
By Zhou Junhong
Editor: Zhou Zhigang | Chief Editor: Luo Zhifei | Translated by: Lu Huiwen
Abstract:
This article examines how the Chinese government exploits its population—particularly migrant workers and laborers from remote areas—through the household registration system (referred to by terms like temporary residence permit, residence permit, point-based household registration, and migrant population management files). The “hukou” system denies rural migrants basic social benefits and charges them extra administrative fees, all to control population movement, restrict peasants to rural areas, and manipulate grain prices—thereby systematically depriving them of basic survival rights.
In this world, there is almost no other country like China—where the state dares to tell its own people:
“You may be a citizen, but on this land, you are only temporarily allowed to exist.”
This statement is not aimed at foreigners, nor illegal immigrants, but at Chinese citizens who are born, raised, taxed, and employed within the same country. This distorted logic is conveyed through a system every ordinary person is familiar with: the temporary residence permit.
I. The Words “Temporary Residence” Are an Insult in Themselves
When you hear the term “temporary residence,” pause and consider its meaning—it implies you don’t belong. You are an outsider, undeserving of taking root. You are merely someone “temporarily allowed to live here.”
Even if this land is your motherland, even if you simply moved from Guizhou to Guangzhou or from Henan to Beijing, the system sees you as an “outsider.” You must be registered, restricted, and treated differently.
This naked hierarchy tells you: not all Chinese citizens are treated equally.
II. From “Temporary Residence” to “Urban Marginalization”: A Manufactured Identity of Displacement
The temporary residence permit system began in the 1990s, alongside China’s urbanization. Its stated purpose was to “manage the floating population,” but its real effect was to brand tens of millions of rural migrant workers and grassroots laborers as “illegally residing” in cities.
A person who works, lives, and pays taxes in their own country is labeled as a “temporary resident.” They must pay for permits and face restrictions:
• No permit? You can’t rent housing or get a job.
• Your child can’t attend local school or take the college entrance exam.
• You’re barred from urban healthcare, social insurance, and public services.
• You may be subject to random checks, eviction, or deportation.
This is not an oversight in policy—it is a deliberately crafted system to downgrade human status. That single word “temporary” has forced millions to live as urban fringe dwellers, extinguishing their hope of ever truly settling.
III. A Chinese Caste System No Less Than India’s
If you think the “temporary residence permit” is an obsolete policy, think again. Though the term has been officially phased out in some cities, it has simply been rebranded as “residence permit,” “point-based hukou system,” or “migrant population file.” The essence remains unchanged: to divide citizens into rigid classes through household registration and administrative barriers.
The hukou system forms the foundation of this discriminatory structure, and the temporary residence permit serves as its violent enforcement mechanism. Together, they create a modern caste system:
• Rural and urban hukou holders live worlds apart.
• Locals and outsiders face immense resource disparities.
• Hukou determines your child’s future and your eligibility to be a “real citizen.”
You are not temporarily residing—you are being segregated. You are not being managed—you are being labeled as cheap labor.
IV. Why Can’t You Move Freely? Because the State Doesn’t Trust You
In most countries, one of the most basic civil rights is the freedom of movement. Move from Texas to New York? From Paris to Lyon? As long as you’re self-reliant, no one stops you.
But in China, where you move is not your decision—it’s whether the state approves your existence. This mistrust permeates every level of governance:
• No local hukou? Sorry, your child can’t go to school.
• No residence permit? You’re not eligible for medical treatment.
• No “points”? You’ll never be allowed to “settle”—you are destined to drift.
In the eyes of the CCP, people are not citizens—they are deployable production units. Migration, settlement, and rootedness are not your rights; they are “favors” granted by the regime.
V. This Is Not a Modern State—It’s Colonial Management
Living in your own country, speaking your own language, practicing your own culture—yet needing to apply for the right to stay?
That’s not the treatment of citizens in a modern state. That’s how a colony manages its subjects.
What’s even more absurd is that in certain cities, a white foreign student can easily reside, receive subsidies, and attend university—while a Chinese migrant worker who has toiled on construction sites for thirty years must accumulate three generations’ worth of “points” just to get a residence permit.
When a country mistrusts, excludes, and discriminates against its own people—but bows to foreigners—what we’re seeing is not openness, but a systemic black hole of identity-based discrimination.
VI. On a Deeper Level: A Denial of the Right to Exist
From a higher perspective, every human being is born with the right to reside, to move, to express. “Citizen” is not merely an administrative label—it’s a form of existential dignity tied to one’s land.
But the logic of the temporary residence permit is this:
You must first prove you are worthy of living here—worthy of existing, of settling, of putting down roots. You must endure humiliation, earn “points,” and strive to become one of the “acceptable residents.”
This is not human civilization—it is a violation of the essence of life.
VII. Ending This Humiliation Requires Dismantling the Entire System
Stop saying “the temporary residence permit has been abolished.” It hasn’t disappeared—it’s just better disguised. As long as you must “earn points to settle,” as long as children are excluded from school due to hukou, as long as people are still being evicted and forcibly returned to their place of origin, this humiliating system is still in place.
What we need is not a name change, not a cosmetic reform. What we need is the fundamental recognition of citizenship, the restoration of freedom of movement, and the affirmation of equal right to reside.
You are not “temporarily living in China.”
You are the rightful owner of this land.
You do not need a permit to justify your existence.
Your existence is your highest legitimacy.
Epilogue:
When a nation uses a “temporary residence permit” to humiliate its own people, it is no longer a nation of the people.
When citizens lose their right to migrate and to belong, the state will eventually lose the hearts of its people.
One day, we will tear down this iron plaque of a system—
So that every person can stand with dignity on their own soil,
No longer “temporarily residing”—but truly living.
