ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the particulars of China's urban growth restraint system, these broadly dividing into two groups — measures to prevent migration into the urban areas on the one hand, and those designed to decant existing urban populations on the other. In the period after 1978, the measures to control urban growth by restricting migration began to lose a great deal of their sharpness. The necessity for the introduction of stern state controls over individual mobility and domicile arose out of the fundamental rift between urban and rural living standards, and the 'migratory gradient' which is its natural consequence. The registration system divided the entire population between those with 'urban residence' and those having 'rural residence'. Temporary residence in the urban areas is possible without a change in registration, but only with the sanction of the local officers. Urban existence outside the rationing system used to be a precarious business.
