ABSTRACT
Domestic migration has been a major source of economic efficiency, development and urbanization. The often socially, politically, economically, and environmentally shattering effects of urbanization have made control of domestic migration imperative. This chapter discusses the unique nature of China’s urbanization. It examines one of the most important fabrics of China’s political economy, the hukou (household registration) system, as a highly institutionalized and deeply legitimized way of controlling the pace and size of China’s urbanization. After two decades of comprehensive economic reform, the hukou system has adopted several important changes of its own and has thus become fairly accommodating to the needs of labor mobility, yet at the same time provides a strong support for China’s political and social stability. China’s urbanization, as a consequence, has been highly controlled, orderly, and slow.
