Towards sustainable urbanisation in China

China continues to face serious impediments in the urbanisation process

China has received enormous dividends from its decades of urbanisation, which provided labour resources for the development of its industrial and service sectors and rapidly raised the income of the Chinese people. A large number of Chinese farmers became part of the country’s modernisation process, facilitating poverty alleviation in rural areas. At the end of 2016, the urbanisation rate of China stood at around 57 per cent.

China however continues to face serious impediments in the urbanisation process. 

One of these is the country’s household registration system or the hukou, which connects a person’s right to access public services with whether or