Chinese society is organised by the principle of divide and rule. The urban, rural, and migrant populations have different forms of citizenship and with different entitlements. These divisions are enshrined in the hukou, the household registration system, as a barrier against broad and working-class solidarities. Rather than bridging such divisions, the system of social protection is so designed as to maintain them. Social provisions divide the population into manifold groups which are separated and treated differently and are not designed to bring the population together into a ‘harmonious
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