Discrimination is a normal social injustice that exists in societies to varying degrees. Discrimination has an extremely negative impact on the stable operations and healthy development of a society. This negative effect is even more intolerable in a modern society. In any modern country, ending discrimination is an important social goal. During China’s social transformation, a large number of forms of discrimination emerge, which directly affect the safe operations and healthy development of Chinese society. It is of great practical significance for us to formulate reasonable and effective anti-discrimination policies and to safeguard social justice by carefully analyzing the types, causes, and other patterns of discrimination as well as the specific characteristics of discrimination in China at present.

1 Definition of Discrimination

Discrimination can be defined in both broadly and narrowly. In its broad sense, the term “discrimination” is not used frequently. It is commonly used in its neutral sense, referring to “differential treatment.” As The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Political Thought reads: “In its most general sense the perception of a difference, a differentiation, or different treatment. In this morally neutral sense discrimination in certain circumstances may be required by the Aristotelian principle of JUSTICE, which tells us to treat like cases alike and different cases differently. For example, a teacher who fails to discriminate between an excellent and a poor student may be unfair to both” (Miller et al. 1991). Discrimination as we use it in its narrow sense or in its negative sense “means that equals are treated unequally or that unequals are treated equally” (Register and Grimes 2016). Specifically, what is called discrimination is not based on ability, contribution, cooperation, and so on, but on status, gender, race, or socio-economic resources, and “differentiates” members of society in order to achieve “unreasonable” purposes. The result is the deprivation experienced by certain social groups and members of society, creating unjust social phenomena. The opposite of “discrimination” in the narrow sense is fair treatment, equitable treatment, and in some cases its opposite is equal treatment. Generally speaking, the concept and question of “discrimination” in the narrow sense is what is commonly meant in and what is of concern to society and academia. In this book, the term “discrimination” refers to this narrow sense.

Discrimination has two specific features. First, it is exclusionary. In terms of resource allocation (including access to public resources), some groups of people exclude or restrict other groups of people on unreasonable grounds and in unfair ways. In this sense, discrimination reflects the unjust patterns and basic characteristics of resource distribution in a particular society at a particular time, as well as certain privileges, deprivations, exclusions, and restrictions. This is the most essential characteristic of discrimination.

Second, it is widespread (social). Discrimination involves a wide range of people. It refers to the exclusion of one or several groups of people from another group or other groups of people, and it is not limited to a small number of people or to relations between individuals. Because of this, discrimination is generally achieved through formal and informal institutions. The former refers to the institutional arrangements and policy formulations in which the elements containing discrimination are institutionalized by laws, rules, regulations, and policies, while the latter refers to the exclusion and restriction of certain groups of people by certain social customs, values, and habits.

Discrimination has a wide range of forms, including economic discrimination, social discrimination, political discrimination, cultural discrimination, and national discrimination. The relevant provisions in some international conventions with the important purpose of acting against discrimination actually explain the specific contents of discrimination from a negative angle. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which China has acceded, stipulates that “the rights enunciated in the present Covenant will be exercised without discrimination of any kind as to race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” (Accessed 2 Aug, 2022). For example, it ensures remuneration which provides all workers, as a minimum, with fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value without distinction of any kind, in particular women being guaranteed conditions of work not inferior to those enjoyed by men, with equal pay for equal work as well as a decent living for themselves and their families. Another example is special measures of protection and assistance should be taken on behalf of all children and young persons without any discrimination for reasons of parentage or other conditions. In the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the term “racial discrimination” shall mean “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life” (Accessed 2 Aug, 2022). According to The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, States Parties shall undertake to adopt appropriate legislative and other measures, including sanctions where appropriate, prohibiting all discrimination against women; to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization, or enterprise. States parties are therefore obliged to work toward the modification of social and cultural patterns of individual conduct in order to eliminate prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women.

In addition to certain important international conventions, the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China stipulates: “All citizens of the People’s Republic of China who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of ethnic status, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education, property status or length of residence” (Accessed 2 Aug, 2022). The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests stipulates that the state shall guarantee that women enjoy the equal right, with men, to work. With the exception of the special types of work or post unsuitable to women, no unit may, in employing staff and workers, refuse to employ women by reason of sex or raise the employment standards for women.

There is another special form of discrimination, which is egalitarianism. The essence of egalitarianism is “trimming the high to level the low,” and its purpose is to achieve similarity and consistency in people’s final results. Unlike general discrimination, egalitarianism is, in a sense, a form of discrimination by the majority against a minority who have stronger abilities and make greater contributions. Although unequal pay for equal work is wrong, it is unreasonable for different work to receive equal pay. If a minority makes greater contributions than the majority, but they get the same pay as others, then a situation of “equal pay for unequal work” arises. In other words, their special contributions are not duly recognized and rewarded, and their reasonable interests and rights are not duly protected. In fact, the members of this minority are deprived by the majority, thus violating the principle of social justice that “equals are treated equally and people who are not equal are treated unequally.” Clearly this is also a form of discrimination.

For the people who engage in discrimination, it is an important way to satisfy their own special purposes. “But the unjust man seeks dominion for the sake of aims such as wealth and security which when appropriately limited are legitimate. The bad man desires arbitrary power because he enjoys the sense of mastery which its exercise gives to him and he seeks social acclaim He too has an inordinate desire for things which when duly circumscribed are good, namely, the esteem of others and the sense of self-command. It is his way of satisfying these ambitions that makes him dangerous” (Rawls 1999). In a society with limited resources for survival and development, people who engage in discrimination can, through this activity, form a pattern of resource allocation that is beneficial to their own vital interests, and then solidify that pattern. Through discrimination, people who engage in discrimination can deprive other people of their sense of “equality,” reflect their own superiority, and produce their own authority, especially an absolute authority over the vulnerable groups who are discriminated against. Further, through discrimination, people who engage in discrimination can establish their own values in a strong position as the mainstream values of the whole society and exclude and restrict the non-mainstream values of other people, in order to achieve exclusive respect for their own values.

Discrimination deviates from and directly undermines the basic rules of social justice. Discrimination undermines the fundamental right of every member of society to equality and freedom and undermines the basic human dignity of specific members of society. Discrimination deviates from the rule of equal opportunity by inappropriately providing more opportunities for some members of society, while depriving other people, especially members of disadvantaged groups, of their own opportunities, and it restricts or even blocks those people’s prospects of development. Discrimination undermines the rule of distribution according to contribution by implementing the practice of unequal pay for equal work. That is, some people get less for working more while others get more for working less. Discrimination also ignores the vital importance of social cooperation and social integration, undermines the important rule of social transfers, and does not even consider the issue of sharing the fruits of social development among all members of society.

As a result, discrimination will inevitably produce serious negative social effects. This is principally manifested in the following areas:

First, discrimination hinders normal social differentiation. With the advancement of modernization and the market economy, the degree of social differentiation deepens: the social structure becomes more complex, the degree of social specialization improves, there are more differentiated elements of society, and social groups (including professional groups) become more diversified. At the same time, there exists a condition of organic connection among the various groups in all aspects of society. However, discrimination makes social groups artificially more rigid. That is, barriers of “no entry” or “restricted entry” block social mobility to varying degrees, thus hindering the normal process of social differentiation.

Second, discrimination weakens the degree of integration of society. Discrimination not only deprives some people of their opportunities for development but also puts them in a weak state and directly harms their dignity. Therefore, these people tend to develop a sense of separation and distrust toward society, and even, in extreme cases, form an antagonistic and anti-social mood. In addition, discrimination also produces very serious consequences for the descendants of people who are discriminated against, limiting their opportunities for development, hurting their self-esteem, and forming an attitude in them that makes it difficult to identify with the society from an early age, in which they lack trust in the society and others and lack the spirit of cooperation. All of these undoubtedly reduce the degree of social integration. It is worth noting that, if discrimination can be tolerated and accepted by most people within a certain range and to a certain extent in a traditional society, then in a modern society, where the awareness of individuality and equality is generally enhanced, people are increasingly intolerant of discrimination and have a strongly contradictory behavior orientation. The exclusion and restriction of some social groups will lead to anti-exclusion and anti-restriction activities in these social groups. In such conditions, a society full of discrimination will necessarily be a society that is full of turbulent factors. For example, In American society, “the environments of the black and white population are so separate that the two races seem to live in two different countries, unable to cross borders, known to each other mainly through stereotypes created by the communications media. Because of the divisive effects of discrimination, 23 million people are unable to share fully in the life of the total society; and the society becomes more divided as the rest of the people try to maintain barriers” (Scarpitti 1974).

Third, discrimination hinders the development of human resources. For the driving force of social development, it is essential actively and maximally to develop human resources. However, the discrimination faced by some people means that those who are suitable for certain positions will be excluded, and some people who are not that suitable will take up these positions, so work in some departments will be inefficient, which is a waste of human resources. Furthermore, discrimination will dampen the enthusiasm of people who are discriminated against at work and, consequently, their potential will be reduced. Thus, discrimination undoubtedly plays an obstructive role in the development of human resources.

Fourth, discrimination reduces the quality of development of the whole society. There is an important law in the process of modernization, that is, with the advancement of social and economic development, the quality of social development is increasingly valued by members of society. With the substantial increase of social wealth, the public resources that are shared by members of society are also growing. From the beginning, this set of public resources should be used to improve the development and living standards of all members of society, so that all members of society can share in the fruits of social development, thus improving the quality of the whole society. However, discrimination makes the distribution of social wealth unreasonable, and the gap between the rich and the poor in society continues to widen, which reduces the quality of social development. When a society contains high levels of discrimination and the superiority and affluence of some people is based on the deprivation of others, then, on a general level, the development of that society has lost its basic meaning, and such a society cannot be healthy, but will instead be a morbid one. Accordingly, its quality of development must be relatively low.

In short, a society with high levels of discrimination can only be a morbid society, not a healthy one. It can only be a society without vitality and energy. It can only be a society full of turbulent factors rather than a well-functioning one.

Since discrimination causes enormous negative social effects, a society must eliminate it in order to ensure its safe operations and healthy development. Although it is impossible for a society to eliminate all discriminations completely, a modern and just society should, at the very least, reasonably design institutional arrangements and policies in order to eliminate and prevent formal discrimination—that is, discrimination at the institutional and policy levels—and to eliminate or reduce informal discrimination to the extent possible. In this regard, the state, as the representative of the public interest, has an inescapable responsibility.

2 Causes of Discrimination

The causes of discrimination include social, economic, cultural, political, and cognitive factors, and these are often interrelated. Here, we select several typical causes (which can also be seen as variable factors) for analysis.

First, prejudice. Prejudice “normally implies a preconceived opinion, often an unfavorable one…Such a preconceived and hostile can be applied to people because of their race, religion, ethnic background or other kind of group membership” (Scarpitti 1974). Prejudice is often directly caused by cognitive biases such as the primacy effect, the recency effect, the halo effect, and social stereotypes. The scope and extent of discrimination are inversely related to the degree of rationality in a society, and positively related to the degree of prejudice in a society. Although prejudice is a very important contributing factor to discrimination, it is worth noting that some foreign scholars pay too much attention to this factor, to the extent that they often regard it as the most fundamental one, which inevitably leads to a biased understanding. This is because the cause of discrimination cannot be obtained only by observing cognitive factors. Even prejudice does not necessarily lead to discrimination. For example, if analyzed purely from a cognitive perspective, many rural residents, migrant workers, and poor people are very likely to have this or that prejudice against urban residents, officials, or the rich, but such prejudice will hardly lead to further discrimination. This example clarifies at least two problems. One is that discrimination often occurs when a member of society who is in a strong position and has a sense of superiority displays such an attitude and behavior toward someone in the opposite position, rather than the other way around. The other is that the causes of discrimination cannot be explained only from their cognitive aspects. Powerful social groups who are motivated by their own economic interests, the sense of inequality across the society, and the degree of separation between social groups are also important factors that contribute to discrimination.

Second, the scarcity of social and economic resources and their unfair possession. Economic interests are extremely important in determining a society’s specific situation. In important respects (though not in all respects), people are economic animals, and most people’s behaviors are oriented toward economic interests. In a sense, discrimination is a way for “vested interest groups” to safeguard their own interests. They may also feel that a certain form of discrimination is unfair, but they will still insist on it in order to protect their interests. Economic interests are the basic driving force for the normal operation and development of society, especially in periods of relatively backwardness. The complexity of the structure of economic interests determines the complexity of social attitudes and behaviors. The condition of backwardness in terms of productivity means that social and economic resources are scarce, and their patterns of ownership and possession are often extremely unreasonable. Essentially, discrimination is an inevitable product of the scarcity of resources. In conditions of resource scarcity (except in primitive societies), the level of social public resources is so small that it is impossible to meet the basic needs of every member of society. In these circumstances, when they are coupled with private ownership, an economic hierarchy will emerge in order to “normalize” and “legitimize” differential structures of resource appropriation. Economic hierarchies then lead to social hierarchies, which in turn lead to differential social attitudes and behaviors, including privileges and forms of discrimination. For example, in accordance with the backwardness of the natural economy, the social structure of feudal society was a pyramid-shaped hierarchy. In this social hierarchy, the higher up the hierarchy a person was, the more privileges they had, and the lower down the hierarchy, the more discrimination they faced. In addition, due to the scarcity of resources, egalitarianism sometimes arose for short periods of time (for example, during peasant revolts) and thus eliminated hierarchy. The problem, however, is that this situation does not last long and, as discussed earlier, egalitarianism generates other kinds of discrimination.

Third, the sense of inequality. Certainly, in traditional Chinese society, discrimination had a major impact on society. Under the feudal autocratic system, the dignity of most members of society was denied. “Despotism’s only thought is disdain for mankind, dehumanized man; and it is a thought superior to many others in that it is also a fact. In the eyes of the despot, men are always debased. They drown before his eyes and on his behalf in the mire of common life from which, like toads, they always rise up again… The principle on which monarchy in general is based is that of man as despised and despicable, of dehumanized man” (Marx and Engels 1956). The idea of the equality of human beings is first and foremost equality in dignity. Thus, in the absence of basic human dignity, there is no sense of equality. The sense of inequality inevitably produces unequal institutional arrangements and unequal behaviors, thus generating various specific discriminatory behaviors, including formal and informal ones. With the advance of modernization and the market economy, the level of civilization is constantly improving. Accordingly, people’s consciousness of individuality is strengthened, their dignity is established and maintained, and their sense of equality is formed. This sense of equality is not only reflected in equal treatment among members of society (that is, the individual’s sense of equality) but also in the social sense of equality and the social protection of equality (that is, the society protects equality in the form of the rules of the system). With the establishment of the modern sense of equality, although forms of discrimination are unlikely to disappear completely, it is difficult for them to become universal and legitimate social behaviors.

Fourth, the degree of separation in society. (1) With respect to the maintenance of the interests of a particular social system or a particular social group. When the degree of social mobility is relatively low, a high level of homogeneity exists within a given social system or group. Homogeneity at this time often means that group members have the same interests. Therefore, in order to protect their own interests, they exclude other social systems or groups, in order to avoid being “invaded” by others. The basic method for this group to reject other groups is based on the kinship circle and its derivatives. For example, they can distinguish degrees of closeness and distance according to blood relationships, and then determine different attitudes and behaviors accordingly. If they are related by blood, they will be ranked by generation or “seniority,” and then different attitudes and behaviors can be determined accordingly. India’s caste system, China’s clan system, and the traditional British hierarchy are typical examples of this. (2) With respect to the incompatibility of the lifestyles of different social groups. Each social group has its own specific lifestyle, which becomes more fixed due to its relative isolation from the outside world. So, it is difficult for social groups to communicate with each other, to identify or to tolerate others’ different lifestyles. Thus, a social group tends to adopt an exclusive attitude toward the lifestyles of other social groups and form discriminatory behaviors. (3) With respect to low social mobility. Social isolation implies a low degree of social mobility. When a society lacks the necessary channels of mobility, people who are in a disadvantaged position often lack the possibility of improving their situation, and their dissatisfaction will accumulate. On the other hand, social groups who are in a strong position will often adopt explicit forms of discrimination to delineate group boundaries for their own interests and security. Thus, the more closed a society or a social group is, the more likely it is to generate and aggravate forms of discrimination.

Fifth, ethnocentrism. The overall consciousness of a nation is not composed of purely cognitive factors, but of a combination of cognitive factors and certain non-cognitive factors. These cognitive and non-cognitive factors are generally coordinated and unified, and they are in a state of mutual constraint and balance. Cognitive factors are the dominant component in overall national consciousness, and they regulate the specific state of non-cognitive factors such as national feelings and emotions. At the same time, non-cognitive factors such as national feelings and emotions also occupy an important position, and this is the psychological basis for the establishment of national consciousness. However, in certain conditions, the non-cognitive factors in national consciousness will escape the constraints of the cognitive factors and expand, thus developing into a kind of blind and arrogant ethnocentrism. Based on this ethnocentrism, prejudice and exclusionary practices against other nationalities will emerge, and then discriminatory attitudes and behaviors will develop. From a global perspective, ethnic discriminations caused by this process are not uncommon. Racism is rather similar to ethnocentrism, and it also inevitably leads to discrimination or even severe discrimination. Racism is based on ideas of race, which have two levels: “first, an individual’s biased attitude and discriminatory behavior towards members of a particular race; and second, discriminatory laws and regulations in a society against a particular race” (Zhou 1997). It is worth noting that ethnocentrism and racism are not simply related to specific economic interests but are also inextricably linked to specific values, so ethnic and racial discrimination are even more difficult to eliminate.

3 Forms of Discrimination in China at Present

During the 30 years from 1949 to 1978 in China, with the popularization of new ideas (such as the simple concept of equality), the reconstruction of the social structure, and the formation of new social fashions, unfair social phenomena such as the discrimination that defined the feudal hierarchy, ethnic discrimination, and gender discrimination were almost wiped out. This was driven by the strong political power and by intense social mobilization. For example, gender discrimination, regarded as the most serious social discrimination and one that had existed for thousands of years, has basically been eliminated, and the actual situation of Chinese women has undergone earth-shaking transformations.

We should also note that in those 30 years, China incorrectly defined the central task of the period as “taking class struggle as the key link,” wrongly implemented the planned economy while rejecting the market economy, and made certain mistakes in major development strategies. Because of this, new forms of discrimination emerged in the country, primarily organized around the political status hierarchy based on political backgrounds, the social status hierarchy based on urban/rural household registration and ownership, the resource distribution system in different life sectors based on egalitarianism, and so on. Accordingly, political discrimination, household registration discrimination, discrimination against particular units of ownership, and discrimination against people with strong abilities and greater contribution appeared. Among these, political discrimination caused the most widespread damage and lasted the longest. A large number of people were discriminated against politically, and their dignity and normal life and work were severely affected.

From 1978, with reform and opening up, and the gradual establishment of the market economic system, Chinese society began a drastic social transformation. During the transition, more forms of discrimination appeared. Compared with previous periods, forms of discrimination in China at present have some very specific characteristics. This is mainly manifested in the following areas:

First, economic discrimination is so severe that it occupies a major position among all kinds of discrimination.

In the 40 years since 1978, with the transformation of the center of the times and the replacement of “taking class struggle as the key link” by “taking economic construction as the center,” large-scale political discrimination has basically disappeared. During this period, the economic consciousness and impulse of the whole society were strengthened to an unprecedented degree, and the process of secularization advanced rapidly. For a long period before 1978, under the influence of asceticism and absolutist ideology, society neglected people’s basic needs, leaving the improvement of their basic living standards far below what it should have been. At comparable prices, the Consumer Price Index, set at 100 in 1952, had only increased to 177 by 1978 (National Bureau of Statistics 1989). Since reform and opening up and the beginning of modernization in 1978, people’s consumption levels have greatly improved, and the contents and forms of people’s daily lives have also undergone tremendous changes. People pay more attention to their own economic interests, the diversity of their lifestyles, and the continuous improvement of their quality of life. From the perspective of their values, people have oriented themselves toward a pragmatic attitude and away from utopian behavior, paying attention to their immediate interests and the realistic basis and feasibility of their goals. However, due to the long and deep impact of the past, people have shown an excessive impulse rebound after breaking free, overemphasizing consumption, the economic interests of individuals and small groups, and the accumulation of their own wealth. On the whole, the process of secularization at the present stage presents a situation of overcorrection.

The overemphasis of economic interests in the whole society will inevitably lead to the phenomenon of despising the poor and currying favor with the rich. This will then lead to economic discrimination, that is, the adoption of different attitudes and behaviors toward members of society according to the amount of wealth they possess. There is a great deal of this in everyday life. For example, certain beautiful scenic spots are exclusively open to the rich for them to live in. Even some helicopters for first aid are available only to the rich. Economic discrimination also exists in the sphere of compulsory education. A few years ago, some key middle schools in Beijing, such as the No. 2 Middle School, the No. 5 Middle School, and the No. 8 Middle School, charged school-selection fees of 60,000 yuan ($8772) to 80,000 yuan ($11,695). Some, like the high school affiliated to Renmin University of China, even charged as high as 100,000 yuan ($14,620). “At present, money plays an increasingly important role in education in China. Children of high-income families enjoy better education, while children of low-income families receive poor education” (Zhong 2002).

Discrimination is very obvious in the economic life. This is highlighted in the area of market monopolies. Some economic sectors and industries that are closely related to the government and have high profit margins, such as civil aviation, electric power, telecommunications, and so on, often directly monopolize the related markets, manipulate the prices of products and services, and do not allow other economic organizations to compete on an equal footing, thus obtaining abnormally high profits. Another notable phenomenon is that under the influence of absolutist ideology and the planned economic system, society still discriminates against non-state-owned private enterprises. As some scholars point out, “Under the current system, foreign capital and state-owned enterprises enjoy preferential treatment like ‘super citizens,’ while private enterprises are treated as if they were the oppressed daughter-in-law in old China. Under the guidance of GDP and investment attraction, good investment projects and industrial guidance tend to prefer the so-called Global 500 companies and the 500 biggest companies in China, which creates an unfair “Matthew effect” in the business environment of enterprises” (Wang 2011). For example, “a survey reveals that, in a certain province in China, state-owned enterprises can enter more than 80 industries and foreign enterprises can enter more than 60 industries, accounting for 75%, while private enterprises can only enter some 40 industries (less than 50%). This is obviously unreasonable and does not conform to the principle of national treatment” (Tian 2002). As another example, some scholars conducted an empirical study with a sample of private enterprises listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2003 to 2009. They determined whether these enterprises had political connections by investigating whether the ultimate controllers and executives of these enterprises were current or former state officials, NPC, deputies, or CPPCC members. The results showed that “private enterprises with political connections bear lower interest and financial expenses than those without such connections, and the more backward the level of financial development is, the more obvious is the credit cost effect of political connections” (He 2011).

Second, social discrimination is also obvious.

In a sound modern society, discrimination is rare. This is because such a society not only has a systematic economic policy, but also has a systematic social policy. The economic policy focuses on economic benefits and matters in the field of initial distribution, which embodies the rule of equal opportunity in social justice, while social policy focuses on redistribution, which to a great degree embodies the basic purpose of social justice—that everyone shares and benefits universally—and the social justice rule of social adjustment. Obviously, for a sound modern society, economic and social policies are indispensable, jointly guaranteeing the safe operations and healthy development of that society.

However, in the process of China’s development in the past 40 years, due to an overly utilitarian social orientation and an overemphasis on efficiency, the whole society seems to be suffering from economic hunger and thirst, infected with a kind of economic obsession. Everything takes the economy as the key link, and the economy has become superior to all other fields. It seems that as long as economic efficiency is improved, all other problems can be solved. For some time, the issue of economic efficiency has been the yardstick and the criterion of evaluation for everything. In a society driven by immediate economic benefits and direct economic interests, it becomes very difficult to formulate systematic social policies and to implement them. In a sense, at present China lacks required social policies, so it has neither a social justice orientation nor practical guarantees for the survival and development of vulnerable social groups. Under such circumstances, a large number of social forms of discrimination will inevitably emerge.

It cannot be denied that, at present, social discrimination is a common phenomenon in Chinese society. Meanwhile, gender discrimination has begun to resurface. Women often face various kinds of discrimination in employment and labor protection, and the phenomenon of unequal pay for equal work between men and women occurs frequently. There is a big difference in the area of retirement benefits. The benefits of those who retire from enterprises are far less than those who were employed by government agencies and institutions. And the elderly in rural areas simply have no concept of “retirement.” In particular, serious identity discrimination still occurs in China at this stage, and differential treatment based on urban or rural household registration is still very serious. Because of their official residence registration, rural residents cannot enjoy the same healthcare services and other public services as urban residents, and they have to pay higher daily living expenses than urban residents, such as high electricity bills. Moreover, most rural workers are not covered by the Labor Law of the People’s Republic of China. The incomes of migrant workers in cities are generally much higher than that of rural residents who are still farming in rural areas. However, migrant workers are discriminated against in cities. They are still rural residents in China’s social identity system, they are not recognized by the state as part of an urbanized population, and there is no difference between them and people who still live in the countryside. As a result, they cannot enjoy many kinds of welfare benefits given by the state to urban residents (Wang 1996). The working conditions of migrant workers are relatively poor, and they are often engaged in low-level jobs that are labor intensive, but their wages are low. From the early 1990s to the early twenty-first century, their monthly wages were generally between 400 yuan ($62) and 500 yuan ($77) (Lu 2002). Moreover, their basic labor rights and interests are often not guaranteed, and most employers in cities do not pay social insurance fees for migrant workers from rural areas. Their wages are also often in arrears. A survey by the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League showed that “64.4% of the foreign-funded enterprises and private enterprises where migrant workers are employed delay, deduct, or refuse to pay wages, and some hard-earned money stays in arrears indefinitely” (Sun 2002). In 2006, the National Bureau of Statistics conducted a special survey on the quality of life of urban migrant workers. The results showed that urban migrant workers’ working and living conditions were generally poor. Migrant workers are mostly engaged in manufacturing, construction, and service industries, with long working hours, poor working environments, and low incomes. At the same time, the proportion of migrant workers who sign labor contracts and buy insurance is low: 56% of migrant workers have not signed labor contracts with employers. The participation rates of endowment insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, and industrial injury insurance for migrant workers are only 27%, 26%, 15%, and 33%, respectively (Zhang 2011). Migrant workers are also discriminated against in daily life and in the handling of various documents and education for their children. They are a marginalized social group in the city, and some people even propose setting up a special area for migrant workers on buses, which is rather similar to certain practices in the worst period of racial discrimination in the United States. To give another example, in order to curb the rapid rise of housing prices, many places have introduced a policy of preventing rural residents from buying houses in cities. This practice may be necessary at a certain stage, but it objectively aggravates the influence of the household registration system and makes it more difficult to move beyond it.

Third, the forms of discrimination are relatively comprehensive.

China is in a period of social transformation, from a traditional society to a modern society, and from the planned economy to the market economy. During this transition, all kinds of discrimination have occurred, involving in such areas as the market, prices, wealth, employment, industry, remuneration, labor conditions, gender, urban/rural identity, unit, age, seniority, education, academic qualification, social security, and the list goes on and on. From the horizontal perspective, discrimination involves economic, cultural, political, social, and other spheres. From a vertical perspective, discrimination in China at present originates not only from a traditional society with a planned economy but also from a modern society with a market economy.

At this stage, both formal and informal forms of discrimination are serious in China. Some laws, rules, and regulations lack relevant content or contain wrong ideas about anti-discrimination. Certain regulations issued by local governments even encourage and advocate discrimination, whether intentionally or unintentionally. For example, in 1996, the Beijing Municipal Labor Bureau issued the No. 2 Notice, which restricted employment of non-Beijing residents in the following industries and positions: management in the financial and insurance industries, salesmen, accountants, tellers, dispatchers, receptionists in star-rated hotels, cashiers, telephone operators, price auditors, taxi drivers, all kinds of ticket sellers, ticket collectors, computer entry clerks, and office secretaries. Further, since 1996, the Beijing Municipal Labor Bureau has updated the list every year. The number of these industries and positions increased from 15 in 1996 to 34 in 1997, 36 in 1998, and 103 in 2000 (Zhong 2002). In fact, most of the industries and jobs that are open to non-Beijing members of the labor force are ones with high levels of labor intensity, low incomes, poor labor protection conditions, and low professional prestige.

Informal forms of discrimination are also very serious. A typical example is the discrimination faced by people from Henan Province in the early twenty-first century. Some media and other publications fabricated false stories that undermined the credibility and the self-esteem of people from Henan, in order to create some “selling points.” This discriminatory practice was so damaging that it greatly damaged the social credibility of Henan people, to the extent that some units explicitly excluded Henan people in their job postings. Discrimination against Henan people is, in the end, a form of economic and identity discrimination. One can easily imagine that if Henan people were as wealthy as Shenzhen people and if Henan was as developed as Shanghai, this kind of discrimination would hardly occur.

Fourth, Chinese people, and especially urban residents, have a low level of tolerance for discrimination.

People’s tolerance of discrimination varies across different times. In a traditional society, people generally lack the sense of individuality and equality, so they are therefore able to identify with the discriminatory social system in a submissive or at least resigned manner. The caste system in India is a typical example. The caste system is a discriminatory social system. Its core idea is that people are born with distinctions of nobility and inferiority, purity and dirtiness, and that they will remain that way for their entire lives. Due to the characteristics of this system, each caste becomes an isolated group. Ancient Indian society was built on “the equilibrium created by this mutual exclusion and inherent isolation” (Chen 2000).

Unlike those in traditional societies, people in Chinese society today have a very limited tolerance for discrimination. On the one hand, the long-term planned economy and the idea of egalitarianism have created a relatively deep-rooted sense of “equality” among Chinese people, especially urban residents. Further, urban residents have even formed a relatively superior psychological state on account of their status as “urban residents.” Although this is not a healthy idea, it must be admitted that this phenomenon exists. It is this concept of parity that makes Chinese people very sensitive to discrimination in general. In particular, some disadvantaged urban residents (laid-off unemployed workers, for instance) struggle greatly with psychological imbalances when they experience a change from the psychological superiority they have always enjoyed to the discriminatory treatment they now experience. On the other hand, in the 40 years since reform and opening up, as the process of modernization and the market economy advance, Chinese people’s sense of equality and of having independent personalities in the modern sense have been rapidly established, so they are bound to oppose and reject discrimination. In short, Chinese people cannot tolerate discrimination for these two reasons. In such circumstances, if society continues to generate forms of discrimination in one way or another, then people in that society will certainly form a variety of dissatisfactions, resistances, and even hatreds, which will potentially lead to factors of social unrest. It is worth noting that if these dissatisfactions and conflicts among the public lack channels of expression and cannot be reasonably resolved along with a significant number of forms of discrimination, the public is likely to take drastic measures to address the problem. If this happens, Chinese society will pay a huge price.

To summarize, then: Discrimination in China at the present stage has had a very negative impact on the safe operations and healthy development of society and will continue to have greater negative impacts. Everyone in society should pay sufficient attention to this.