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The Hukou System and Rural-Urban Migration in China: Processes and Changes*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Kam Wing Chan  and
Li Zhang
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Extract

Until recently, few people in mainland China would dispute the significance of the hukou (household registration) system in affecting their lives – indeed, in determining their fates. At the macro level, the centrality of this system has led some to argue that the industrialization strategy and the hukou system were the crucial organic parts of the Maoist model: the strategy could not have been implemented without the system. A number of China scholars in the West, notably Christiansen, Chan, Cheng and Seiden, Solinger, and Mallee, have begun in recent years to study this important subject in relation to population mobility and its social and economic ramifications. Unlike population registration systems in many other countries, the Chinese system was designed not merely to provide population statistics and identify personal status, but also directly to regulate population distribution and serve many other important objectives desired by the state. In fact, the hukou system is one of the major tools of social control employed by the state. Its functions go far beyond simply controlling population mobility.

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Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 160 , December 1999 , pp. 818 - 855
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1999

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References

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9. These provisions were taken out when the Constitution was next revised in 1975.

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23. In the U.S. system the criteria for determining eligibility are publicly known. There is also a waiting list based on the date on which the application is processed. This is not the Chinese case where processing of applications works entirely in a “black box.” The precise criteria for eligibility are often not made public. Such practices have given rise to many opportunities for corruption.

24. See Ministry of Public Security, Guanyu chuli hukou qianyi wenti de tongzhi (Circular Concerning the Regulations of Transfer of Hukou Registration), issued on 17 04 1962Google Scholar; Minister of Public Security, Guanyu jiaqiang hukou guanti gongzuo de yijian (Suggestions Concerning the Reinforcement of Hukou Administration), issued on 8 12, 1962Google Scholar; Ministry of Public Security, Guanyu chuli hukou qianyi de guiding (The Regulations of Transfer of Hukou Registration), issued on 8 11 1977Google Scholar; Ministry of Public Security, Guanyu yinfa “guanyu hukou qianyi de wenti jieda” de tongzhi (Circular on Circulating MPS's Questions and Answers Concerning the Hukou Migration), issued on 15 09 1978Google Scholar; Guangren, Liu (ed.), Hukou guanti xue (Study of Hukou Registration Administration) (Beijing: China Procuratorial Press, 1992).Google Scholar

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27. See State Council, Guanyu nongcun hukou dengji, tongji gongzuo he guoji gongzuo yigui gongan humen jieban de tongzhi (Circular Concerning Ministry of Public Security Taking Over Rural Household Registration, Statistics and Naturalization), issued on 13 01 1956.Google Scholar

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30. The Beijing survey was cited in Guangren, Liu (ed.), Study of Hukou Registration Administration, p. 284.Google Scholar Examples of other cities can be found in Yang, Suiquan, Zhongguo renkou falü zhidu yanjiu (Study of China's Population Law System) (Beijing: Law Publishing Press, 1995).Google Scholar

31. Cheng, and Seiden, , “The origins and social consequences of China's hukou system.”Google Scholar

32. See, for example, Chan, and Xu, , “Urban population growth and urbanization.”Google Scholar

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35. See a more detailed treatment in Chan, Kam Wing, “Internal migration in China: a dualistic approach,” in Pieke, Frank and Malice, Hein (eds.), Internal and International Migration: Chinese Perspectives (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1999), pp. 49–71.Google Scholar

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51. State Council, Pizhuan guowuyuan renkou pucha lingdao xiaozu, gonganbu guanyu zai quanguo disanci renkou puchaqian renzhenjinxing zhengdun hukou gongzuo de baogao de tongzhiGoogle Scholar (Circular on Ratifying and Transmitting the Report Submitted by Leading Group of Population Census of the State Council and the Ministry of Public Security Concerning the Rectification of Hukou Registration Before the Third National Population Census), issued on 31 October 1980; State Council, Pizhuan guowuyuan renkou pucha lingdao xiaozu, gonganbu guanyu zai quanguo disici renkou puchaqian jinxing zhengdun hukou gongzuo de baogao de tongzhiGoogle Scholar (Circular for Ratifying and Circulating the Report Submitted by Leading Group of Population Census of the State Council and the Ministry of Public Security Concerning the Rectification of Hukou Registration before the Fourth National Population Census), issued on 8 December 1989.

52. Cheng, Tiejun, “Dialectics of control,” pp. 273–77.Google Scholar

53. See Zhijing, Yin and Qihong, Yu, Zhongguo hujizhidu gaige (Reform of Chinese Hukou System) (Beijing: Zhongguo zhengfa daxue chubanshe, 1996), p. 65.Google Scholar

54. The figures are computed from Population Research Institute, Chinese Academy Social Science, Zhongguo renkou nianjian 1996 (Almanac of China's Population 1996) (Beijing: Zhongguo minhang chubanshe, 1997), p. 308.Google Scholar These figures include the natural increase of non-agricultural hukou population. See also Ministry of Public Security, Guanyu zhuanfa “bufen shengshi hukou nongzhuanfei gongzuo zuotanhui jiyao” de tongzhi (On Circulating the Minutes of the Working Meeting Concerning Hukou Transfer from Agricultural to Non-agricultural Status in Some Provinces and Cities), issued on 4 05 1991.Google Scholar

55. The following documents stipulate the conditions to get market towns hukou: State Council, Guanyu nongmin jinru jizhen luohu wenn de tongzhi (Directive Concerning Issues of Peasants Settling Down in Market Towns), issued on 13 10 1984Google Scholar; Ministry of Public Security, Guanyu guanche shishi “guowuyuan guanyu nongminjinrujizhen luohu wenti de tongzhi” de tongzhi (Circular for Implementing the State Council's Directive Concerning Issues of Peasants Settling Down in Market Towns), issued on 3 11 1984Google Scholar; Labour Planning Bureau of Ministry of Labour and Personnel, Guanyu pizhun dao jizhen wugong, jingshang, banfuwuye de nongmin hejiashu luohukou de laodongli ziyuan guanti deng wenti de fuhan (Reply Concerning the Administration of Peasant Labourers and Their Family Members Who Are Permitted to Settle Down in Market Towns and involved in Non-agricultural Activities), issued on 6 December 1984. For an academic discussion on this policy, see Malice, Hein, “Reforming the hukou system: the experiment with the ‘urban registration with self-supplied grain’,” in Lisheng, Dong (ed.), Administrative Reform in the People's Republic of China Since 1978 (Leiden: International Institute for Asian Studies, Working Paper Series I, 1994), pp. 100–120.Google Scholar

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67. See Guangdong Province Government, Pizhuan sheng gonganting guanyu fangkuan he gaige hukou qianyi zhengce baogao de tongzhi (Circular on Approving and Circulating the Report Presented by Public Security Bureau on Relaxing Control and Reforming of Hukou Transfer Policy), issued in 10 1992Google Scholar; Shanghai Municipality Government, Shanghaishi lanyin hukou guanti zanxing guiding (Interim Stipulations of Application of “Blue-Stamp” Hukou in Shanghai Municipality), issued on 23 12 1993Google Scholar; Shenzhen Municipality Government, Shenzhenshi huji zhidu gaige zanxing guiding (Interim Stipulations for Reforming the Household Registration System), issued on 24 11 1995.Google Scholar

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69. Yangcheng wanbao, 25 10 1998 (electronic edition, http://www.ycwb.com.cn).Google Scholar

70. Sing Tao Daily, 8 02 1994.Google Scholar

71. See General Office of State Council, Guanyu zhizhi yixie shixian gongkai chumai chengzhen hukou de tongzhi (Circularon Stopping the Overt Sale of Urban Hukou in Certain Cities and Counties), issued on 29 10 1988Google Scholar; Ministry of Public Security, Guanyu jianjue zhizhi gongkai chumai feinongye hukou cuowu zuofa de jinji tongzhi (Urgent Circular on Resolutely Stopping the Overt Sale of Non-agricultural Hukou), issued on 4 05 1992Google Scholar; Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Finance and The People's Bank of China, Guanyu jianjue zhizhi jixu chumai feinongye hukou de tongzhi (Circular on Stopping the Continued Sale of Non-agricultural Hukou), issued on 2 08 1994.Google Scholar

72. Beijing Municipality Government, Zhengsou chengshi rongnafei tiaoli (Regulations on Levying Fees of Urban Infrastructure Construction), issued on 8 09 1994Google Scholar; Shenzhen Municipality Government, Interim Stipulations for Reforming Household Registration System.Google Scholar

73. Ministry of Public Security, Xiaochengzhen huji guanli zhidu gaige shidian fang'an (Pilot Schemes for Reforming Hukou Administration System in Small Towns), proposed on 20 05 1997Google Scholar and approved by State Council on 11 June 1997. Also see China Daily, 16 08 1997.Google Scholar

74. Dorothy Solinger predicted these outcomes in her earlier studies. See Solinger, , China's Transients and the State: A Form of Civil Society, USC Seminar Series No. 1, Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991.Google Scholar

75. Xin, and Yu, , Reform of Chinese Hukou System, pp. 65 and 87.Google Scholar

76. Chan, Kam Wing, Cities With Invisible WallsGoogle Scholar, Chan, Kam Wing, “Post-Mao China: a two-class urban society in the making.”Google ScholarFeng, Wang, “Invisible walls within cities: migration and the emergence of a dual society in urban China,” paper prepared for Conference on Social Consequences of Chinese Economic Reform, Harvard University, 23–24 05 1997.Google Scholar

77. Solinger, , “The floating population in the cities.”Google Scholar

78. Indeed, even the members of a family (parents and children) are divided by different hukou categories. See Cheng, Tiejun, “Dialectics of control,” p. 302–303.Google Scholar Also Yangcheng wanbao, 25 10 1998 (electronic edition, http://www.ycwb.com.cn).Google Scholar

79. See State Statistical Bureau, Guanyu yinfa gaige woguo nongye feinongye renkou huafen biaozhun de shixing fang'an de tongzhi (Circular on the Pilot Scheme of Reforming the Criteria for Classification of Agricultural and Non-agricultural Population), issued on 8 07 1988.Google Scholar

80. Feng, Wang, “The breakdown of a great wall,” p. 159.Google Scholar

81. In fact, population data classified by agricultural and non-agricultural hukou status still continue to be reported in various recent official statistical yearbooks (1996 and 1997) such as the Population Statistical Yearbook published by the State Statistical Bureau and the Population Yearbook published by Population Research Institute, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

82. See Ministry of Public Security, Guanyu qiyong xinde changzhu renkou dengjibiao he juming hukouben youguan shixiang de tongzhi (Circular on Some Issues Relating to Usage of New Form of Regular Population Registration and Hukou Book), issued on 19 12 1995.Google Scholar Also, Sing Too Daily, 8 07 1997, p. A7.Google Scholar

83. Reporting this forthcoming change, South China Morning Post (International Weekly) proclaimed that “Registration system set to be abolished” (the title of an article) on 5 02 1994, p. 7Google Scholar; Ming bao (Hong Kong) carried an article on 21 June 1996 (p. A9) with a similar tone.

84. Those published in the 1980s are documented in Cheng, Tiejun, “Dialectics of control.”Google Scholar More recent ones include Hongbin, You, “Huji guanli zhidu gaige de fanglüe (”Schemes for reforming household registration system“), Demography and Family Planning, No.4 (1994), pp. 15–17.Google ScholarQingwu, Zhang, “Hukou qianyi huhuan huji gaige (“Hukou transfer calls for the reform of hukou system,” Journal of Public Security University, No. 3 (1994).Google Scholar The most well-known critique is by Guo, Shutian and Liu, Chunbin, Shiheng de Zhongguo (An Unbalanced China) (Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin chubanshe, 1990).Google Scholar

85. Personal interview with the officials in the Ministry of Public Security, September 1997 and July 1998, Beijing. Also see Xin, and Yu, , Reform of Chinese Hukou System.Google Scholar

86. Ibid.

87. Sing Tao Daily, 11 07 1998, p. A6, and 7 11 1998, p. A6.Google Scholar See also State Council, Pizhuan gonganbu guanyujiejue dangqian hukou guanti gongzuo zhongjige tuchu wenn de yijian de tongzhi (Circular for Approving and Circulating the MPS's Proposal for Resolving Some Serious Problems in Current Hukou Administration), issued on 22 07 1998.Google Scholar

88. An example of an urban welfare programme can be found in Suzhou (see Sing Too Daily, 7 12 1998, p. B8Google Scholar). Before September 1997, outsiders could not purchase property in Beijing (see Guangzhou ribao, 10 09 1997, p. 1).Google Scholar

89. Chan, Kam Wing, Cities With Invisible WallsGoogle Scholar; Feng, Wang, “The breakdown of a great wall.”Google Scholar

90. Guo, and Liu, , An Unbalanced China.Google Scholar