The system is a Chinese vocabulary, and the pinyin is t ǐ zh nè i, which refers to the part that plays a leading role in the organizational system of state organs and state-owned enterprises and institutions. And those parts that are not dominant or marginal are called outside the system.

Before the reform, most people with urban hukou were within the system. At that time, urban workers had "units", which were not only economic organizations, but also grass-roots organizations of the national political system, and at the same time assumed a wide range of social functions from "eating, drinking and sleeping" to "holding a memorial service".

Today's "within the system" can be divided into three levels, the government is the most typical, in the core circle, the institutions are in the middle state, and the state-owned enterprises are in the outermost periphery.

In the new century, the reform of state-owned enterprises has been deepened, and a large number of employees of state-owned enterprises have been squeezed out of the system. The enterprises that remain in the system are mainly state-owned enterprises in the fields of public utilities and resource monopoly. Among these state-owned enterprises, the special group is the state-owned enterprise executives.

The leader still retains the administrative level, which belongs to "within the system" and the following employees belong to "outside the system". Logistical posts such as drivers, security guards and cleaners in administrative organs have gradually separated from the "system", and some have also taken the form of labor dispatch.