Some observers have associated China's hukou, or household registration system, with terms such as "apartheid" or "two-class society" because it divides the citizenry into two groups, urban and rural.
Under central planning, those with urban hukou were taken care of by the state from cradle to grave. Today urban hukou still convey eligibility for government jobs as well as subsidized housing, education and health care. Those with rural hukou have had access only to arable land as their main source of livelihood.
