Reformed Migration Control and New Targeted People: China's Hukou System in the 2000s

Abstract

This article outlines the latest reforms of China's hukou system in 1997–2002 and reports the system's functional changes and continuities. Today's hukou system still performs two leading functions: the widely discussed internal migration control with reformed mechanisms and the previously scarcely examined socio-political management of the targeted people (zhongdian renkou). An adapted and adjusted hukou system is expected to continue as a key component of China's institutional framework, playing a crucial role to determine socio-political stability, facilitate a rapid but uneven economic growth, and shape socio-economic stratification and spatial inequality in the PRC.