Regional discrimination in China

Regional discrimination in China or regionalism is overt prejudice against people based on their places of origin, ethnicity, sub-ethnicity, language, dialect, or their current provincial zones. China's sheer size and population renders much demographic understanding tied to locality, and there is often little life movement outside of a citizen's province of birth. Historically, internal migration has been tightly controlled, and many barriers to free movement exist today. Treatment of ethnic minorities and Han Chinese regional groups can hinge on preferential assumptions based on places of upbringing, and is often most pronounced towards those born external to urban zones.

When Chinese migrant settle in a new region, local residents can develop social attitudes and prejudgments based on the newcomer's place of birth. If a large volume of new residents relocate from a particular area, regionalism can manifest as sub-ethnic bias and provoke social tension.

Currently, the CCP defines regionalism as adverse action or negative attitudes against another based on their home province. The Chinese state acknowledges this as a detrimental yet pervasive prejudice.

Regional discrimination there can also be discrimination against person or a group of people who speak a particular language dialect.

The hukou household registry is a system that has been criticized as an entrenchment of social strata, especially as between rural and urban residency status,and is regarded by some as a form of caste system.

Regionalism has long been part of society in China. Generally, southern China is thought to be more regionalist than northern China. The Hakka people, despite being considered Han Chinese. This is thought to have led to various conflict such as the Taiping Rebellion and Hakka-Punti Wars.

A university usually sets a fixed admission quota for each province, with a higher number of students coming from its home province. As the number and quality of universities vary greatly across China, it is argued that students face discrimination during the admission process based on their region. For example, compared to Beijing, Henan province has fewer universities per capita. Therefore, an applicant in Henan needs a significantly higher score than his Beijing counterpart to attend the same university. This is similar to regional universities in other countries that receive subsidies from regional governments in addition to or in place of the national governments' funding.

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