Brewing Tensions While Maintaining Stabilities: The Dual Role of the Hukou System in Contemporary China

As a key institution in the PRC, the hukou (household registration) system defines and conditions Chinese politics, social life, and economic development. This article describes the current status of the hukou system and its significant changes, and outlines its complicated but crucial functions. The hukou system facilitates a rapid but uneven economic growth and creates significant social and regional disparities. It also helps greatly to stabilize the PRC sociopolitical order through an effective police control, while generating powerful tensions in the areas of human rights, equity of citizenship, and simple ethics. Further reform of the system is needed to continue its role in the Chinese political economy; yet a withering or abolition of the hukou may seriously challenge China’s sociopolitical stability and economic growth.