The China Quarterly 

About: The China Quarterly is an academic journal published by Cambridge University Press. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): China & Politics. It has an ISSN identifier of 0305-7410. Over the lifetime, 3498 publications have been published receiving 74878 citations. The journal is also known as: China Quarterly.

The "hukou" system and rural-urban migration in China: processes and changes.

Abstract: This article provides an account of the “hukou” (household registration) system in relation to rural-urban migration in post-1949 China. The system analyzed the dual control operation of the “nongzhuanfei” policy the difficulties in administering the operation and the problems created. The “hukou” system reforms in the 1980s and 1990s have been characterized by opening urban residency to rural people and relaxing some degree of the policy control of “nongzhuanfei”. However the essential features of the “hukou” system remain unchanged. Socioeconomic eligibility is still linked with “hukou” status despite the declining urban benefits. Economic reforms since the late 1970s have eroded the previous multi-layered control structure upon which the system relied for its function weakening the effectiveness of the system on monitoring and controlling the mobility of the population. Furthermore the ongoing economic reforms and “hukou” system reforms have generated a series of issues and predicament in the administration of population distribution and rural-urban migration. The rising predominance of the floating population since the mid-1980s is a consequence of a rapidly expanding market economy and a controlled “nongzhuanfei” regime. With the introduction of categories of urban “hukou” societal stratification has become more complicated.

The Origins and Social Consequences of China's Hukou System*

Abstract: Throughout the 1950s China implemented a code of laws, regulations and programmes whose effect was formally to differentiate residential groups as a means to control population movement and mobility and to shape state developmental priorities. The hukou system, which emerged in the course of a decade, was integral to the collective transformation of the countryside, to a demographic strategy that restricted urbanization, and to the redefinition of city-countryside and state-society relations. This article offers a documentary study tracing the origins and development of the hukou system of population registration and control, and scrutinizes its relationship to a host of connected institutions, for clues to understanding distinctive features of China's developmental trajectory and social structure in the era of mobilizational collectivism. It considers the farreaching social consequences of the hukou system with particular attention to its implications for the creation of spatial hierarchies, especially its consequences for defining the position of villagers in the Chinese social system.

Is China Abolishing the Hukou System

Abstract: In recent years, China has instituted a variety of reforms to its hukou system, an institution with the power to restrict population mobility and access to state-sponsored benefits for the majority of China's rural population. A wave of newspaper stories published in late 2005 understood the latest round of reform initiatives to suggest that the hukou is set to be abolished, and that rural residents will soon be “granted urban rights.” This article clarifies the basic operations of the hukou system in light of recent reforms to examine the validity of these claims. We point out that confusion over the functional operations of the hukou system and the nuances of the hukou lexicon have contributed to the overstated interpretation of the initiative. The cumulative effect of these reforms is not abolition of the hukou, but devolution of responsibility for hukou policies to local governments, which in many cases actually makes permanent migration of peasants to cities harder than before. At the broader level, the hukou system, as a major divide between the rural and urban population, remains potent and intact.

The Role of the Local State in China's Transitional Economy

Abstract: All states have a role in development, but this varies widely. The spectrum is defined at one end by the laissez faire minimalist state whose role is limited to ensuring a stable and secure environment so that contracts, property rights and other institutions of the market can be honoured. At the opposite end are the centrally planned Leninist states that directly replace the market with bureaucratic allocation and planning. Between these two extremes are the capitalist developmental states of Japan and the East Asian Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) that are neither Communist nor laissez faire, but exhibit characteristics of both. The state plays an activist, rather than a minimalist, role; there is planning, but it is geared toward creating maximum competitive and comparative advantage for manufacturers within a market economy.

State Capacity and Local Agent Control in China: CCP Cadre Management from a Township Perspective

Abstract: This study argues against the view that the capacity of the central state has declined in the reform era in China. It examines how reforms have been introduced into the old system of cadre management to make it more effective, but also how higher levels of the party-state have improved monitoring and strengthened political control through promoting successful township leaders to hold concurrent positions at higher levels and by rotating them between different administrative levels and geographical areas. Its findings suggest that state capacity, defined as the capacity to monitor and control lower level agents, has increased. The reason behind the failure to implement some policies, such as burden reduction, is not so much inadequate control over local leaders as the centre's own priorities and conflicting policies. The Chinese party-state maintains the ability to be selectively effective in the beginning of 2000s.