ABSTRACT
Since agricultural productivity was increased, peasants freed from working on their land became a large labour surplus and were allowed to provide services in urban areas without permanently shifting their registered status. A large proportion of them fled to coastal regions in south-eastern China and became the first generation of China's migrant workers. Around 1986, reforms in urban areas commenced with the adoption of a new ‘factory director responsibility system’ in state enterprises. Since the labour contract system introduced the risk of being laid off from the late 1980s, social services were required to be partly incorporated into the workers’ wages. This relevance is manifested not only as one of the constitutional rights that is subject to constitutional adjudication and interpretation, but also as a socio-legal exploration that can be utilised to discern gaps in the Chinese constitutional trajectory.
