Nationality, Hukou, and Ethnicity: The Institutional Structure of Citizenship in Contemporary Mainland China

Abstract

From an institutional perspective, nationality and citizenship rights are the basic elements of citizenship. Individuals gain citizenship either through jus soli or by jus sanguinis. Citizenship is believed to be closely related to a country’s political structure: a unitary system has one level of citizenship, often understood as nationality, while a federal system may have two levels of citizenship, that is, citizenship at the federal level and at the sub-national state level. However, a case study of China depicts a rather different context: the criteria for accessing citizenship are more flexible and the institutional structure of citizenship is more complicated. Besides jus sanguinis, other elements, such as certain political considerations, economic investments, and technology transfers, are paths to citizenship. Additionally, besides the concept of nationality defined by national citizenship, hukou (household registration) and ethnicity are the most important determinants of sub-national citizenship. In mainland China, citizenship functions more as the ruling class strategy.