Urban-Rural Dual System

Stemming from the planned economy, the urban-rural dual system reflects the significant differences between urban and rural areas in many institutional aspects, including household registration, land management, public investment, social insurance, as well as finance and revenue. For quite a long time in China, the urban-rural dual system has severely restrained the farmers’ initiative and the development of the productive force, resulting in the broken relationship and a huge gap between urban and rural societies. Thus to break down the urban-rural dual system has been one of the most important challenges for the reform.