SOME PEASANTS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS:

China rethinks peasant 'apartheid' (Tim Luard, 11/11/05, BBC)

The hukou system of household registration has for decades discriminated against the nation's 800 million rural inhabitants, by depriving them of most of the rights enjoyed by those born in urban areas.

The proposed abolition of the system in 11 of China's 23 provinces, mainly along the developed eastern coast, is expected to promote further growth by encouraging a new influx of labour from poorer western regions.

The government also hopes the reforms will help provide stability at a time of simmering protests over the ever-widening wealth gap. [...]

Such measures are long overdue, according to Jiang Wenran, acting director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta.

He described the hukou system as one of the most strictly enforced "apartheid" social structures in modern world history.

"Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens," he told the BBC News website.

Are you a good peasant, or a bad peasant?

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 11, 2005 7:17 AM