Abstract
This paper adopts a neo-Marxian perspective to examine the transformation of class structure in the urban China. A class schema is developed based on the institutional features of the Maoist China: household registration (hukou) institution, work unit (danwei) institution, and cadre position, which correspond to the ownership of labor power, of organizational assets, of skills/authority in neo-Marxian class theory. In contrast, the capitalist classes are divided by authority, skill, and means of production to categorize class locations after the economic reform. The theoretical framework suggests that when hukou and danwei are undermined by the labor market and privatization, the class structure should display a trend toward proletarianization. The statistical results, based on the dataset from the 2003 China General Social Survey, showed that the main source of income inequality in urban China has shifted from differences among hukou and danwei to the differences among social classes. In addition, the income level of the self-employed is declining and its difference from the proletariat is insignificant. Analyses of a mobility table and the Multinomial Logistic Regression model confirm that the urban China has been proletarianizing over the past three decades.