Since the 1950s, China has structured social relationships by limiting population mobility and separating urban and rural populations. In the 1990s, changes in China's economic strategy and its system of household registration have contributed to the growth of a large transient population. Although legislative measures have been enacted to deal with the transient population and associated crime, a basic contradiction remains. The reform plan that has improved China's economy has also created a transient population that threatens progress. Highly publicized campaigns, the extensive use of administrative detention and capital punishment, and expanded police powers call attention to government efforts to curtail crime and thus legitimize the state, but they do not resolve the basic contradiction that China's new economy cannot provide adequate employment for its citizens. China will continue to experience rising crime rates unless this contradiction is addressed. 45 references, 4 notes, 2 tables, and 1 figure