Political divisions of China
Adminstrative divisions
Most of the provinces of China have boundaries which were established in the late Ming Dynasty. Major changes since then have been the reorganization of provinces in the Northeast after the Communist takeover of mainland China in 1949 and the establishment of autonomous regions which are based on Soviet nationality theory.
The most recent administrative changes have included the elevation of Hainan and Chongqing to provincial level status and the organization of Hong Kong and Macau as special administrative regions. All of the newly created administrative levels of the People's Republic of China equal those of the provinces. In Taiwan, Taipei and Kaohsiung were elevated to the status of centrally administered municipalities after the retreat of the KMT-led government.
In mainland China, provinces theoretically are subservient to the PRC central government, but in practice provincial officials have a large amount of discretion with regard to economic policy. Unlike the United States, the power of the central government was (with the exception of the military) not exercised through a parallel set of institutions until the early 1990s. The actual practical power of the provinces has created what some economists call federalism with Chinese characteristics.
Provinces also serve an important cultural role in China. People tend to be identified in terms of their native provinces, and each province has a stereotype that corresponds to their inhabitants.
| Name | Types | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Province level (省级 shěngjÃÂÃÂ) |
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| 2 | Prefecture level (地级 dÃÂìjÃÂÃÂ) |
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| 3 | County level (县级 xiÃÂÃÂ njÃÂÃÂ) |
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| 4 | Township level (乡级 xiāngjÃÂÃÂ) |
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| 5 | Village level (村级) |
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Basic local divisions like neighbourhoods and communities are not informal like in the West, but have defined boundaries and designated heads (one per area). The top of the hierarchy used to be occupied by the supreme divisions of greater administrative areas, but this is no longer the case.
The Republic of China has no autonomous regions, prefecture-level cities and sub-provincial cities. Province-governed cities are the equivalents of county-level cities. It has county-governed city (town-level). In addition, it translates towns and townships both as townships. See Political divisions of the Republic of China.
Mainland China has 22 provinces (省 pinyin shěng):
Provinces
For the capitals, please refer to the list of capitals of subnational entities.
Disputed Province
Main article: Political status of Taiwan
Since its founding in 1949, the People's Republic of China has considered Taiwan to be its 23rd province. However, the Republic of China currently controls the island and the Pescadores, and Kinmen and (part of) Lienchiang counties of Fujian province. The ROC also officially claims all of mainland China (including Tibet) and outer Mongolia. Though this claim was unofficially dropped by Lee Teng-hui in 1991, this action was not officially approved by the National Assembly.
Maps of China published in Taiwan will often show provincial boundaries as they were in 1949 which do not match the current administrative structure as decided by the Communist Party of China post-1949.
Apart from provinces there are 5 autonomous regions (自治区 pinyin zÃÂìzhÃÂìqū) being concentrations of some Chinese minorities:
4 municipalities (直辖市 pinyin zhÃÂÃÂxiÃÂáshÃÂì, literal meaning: "directly administrated city (by the central government)") adminstered by the PRC:
Autonomous Regions
Municipalities
2 municipalities administered by the ROC:
Since these two cities were elevated after 1949 by a government the PRC considered no longer legitimate, the PRC does not consider them to be centrally administered municipalities and refers to Taipei, and not Chung-hsing-hsin-ts'un, as the provincial capital of Taiwan.
2 special administrative regions (SARs) (特别行政区 pinyin tÃÂèbiÃÂé xÃÂÃÂngzhÃÂèngqū):
These provinces existed sometime during the 20th century.
In recent years there have been calls to reform the administrative divisions and levels of China. Although actual proposals differ in their details, many of the proposals contain the following points:
The current province boundaries of China were mostly drawn during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, and are criticized by some as relics of a divide and rule policy that prevailed during those times. Current provinces frequently transcend major cultural and geographical divides, encompassing areas that have little in common. On the other hand, many cultural blocs, such as the Yangtze delta, the Huai watershed, or the Hakka lands, are divided along boundaries that do not actually indicate any geographical or cultural divide. Proponents for redrawing province boundaries believe that boundaries should be redrawn to better reflect cultural and geographical divides, which would in turn help to reduce conflict within provinces, promote regional cooperation, and increase administrative efficiency.
Opponents of this, on the other hand, point to the fact that despite disparities within provinces, these boundaries have remained more or less stable for many centuries, and form an important part of identity for all Chinese. Opponents also doubt whether realigning province borders to cultural boundaries would really help in promoting regional cooperation -- would it not simply lead to regionalism instead?
Proponents point to the size of current provinces, such as Henan, Shandong, and Sichuan, all of which having populations close to 100 million people. It is said that such enormous size puts an enormous burden on provincial governments, resulting in inefficiency and a poor amount of responsiveness to grassroots needs and desires. In addition, some proponents of province shrinking believe that the current size of larger provinces has given them too much bargaining power with the central government, and is a negative influence on the territorial integrity of China.
(A variation on this theme is a call to increase the number of municipalities by carving major cities out of the provinces -- this would basically achieve the same effect.)
Opponents of province shrinking believe that increasing the number of provinces would simply increase the inefficiency of governmental bureaucracy. They also believe that smaller provinces would make the coordination of pan-regional efforts more difficult and, consequently, affect economic development. Moreover, they believe that current provinces are important parts of identity for individual Chinese and should not be tampered with.
The recent establishment of Hainan province (out of Guangdong) and Chongqing municipality (out of Sichuan) can be seen as experiments along this vein.
This proposal has recently gathered quite a lot of popularity. To understand the reasons, however, we must go into the background of prefectures.
("Prefecture" here refers to the modern sense of dÃÂìqū, not the ancient sense of "xiÃÂàn" - see prefecture in the Chinese sense.)
By the constitution of China, provinces are supposed to govern counties directly -- and prefectures (autonomous ones excepted) are neither mentioned nor endorsed. So when prefectures were originally being set up, they were an unofficial quasi-level to help provinces govern very large numbers of counties. As a result, prefectures are (unlike provinces or counties) often seen as nothing more than bureaucratic institutions.
However, the constitution does allow for some cities, which are a constitutionally guaranteed level of administration, to be "prefecture-level" (in the sense that they can take surrounding counties under them), though the original intention was likely to have just a few very large cities in each province be prefecture-level cities that govern only the counties in their immediate suburbs. The rest of each province would still consist of counties under unofficial prefectures. (This was, in fact, the general situation before the 90's.)
In recent years, however, there has been a trend to replace prefectures wholesale with prefecture-level cities. This takes advantage of the ambiguous wording in the constitution, and basically turns unofficial prefectures overnight into official levels endorsed in the constitution. This process took place very fast -- most provinces now govern all or most of their counties through only prefecture-level cities. In other words, an extra level of government has been "inserted" into the administrative structure.
Proponents of reform say that this twist in events undermines the entire administrative structure of China by "sneaking in" an extra level "out of nowhere". More levels, they argue, lead to more corruption, more government spending, more inefficiency and idleness, and greater distance between the grassroots and the government. In addition, they claim that this arrangement over-emphasizes prefecture capitals (now they can claim, nominally and legally, to "be" the entire prefecture), and they argue that this has given prefectures license to sap resources that would otherwise go directly to counties. This in turn accentuates regional conflicts and the rich-poor gap. Also, if provinces are shrunk as well (see the proposal above), then there is even less need left for any prefectures at all to exist -- after all, they only exist because provinces are too large.
(Autonomous prefectures, which are guaranteed in the constitution, are mostly exempted from such proposals.)
Opponents of this change believe that it is unrealistic to expect any change to come to current provincial boundaries, and hence prefectures are here to stay, at least in the short term. Moreover, they claim that the sheer size of provinces (which, according to them, do not need to be shrunk) means that prefectures are needed as an intermediary level. Finally, they defend the establishment of prefecture-level cities by arguing that it helps in encouraging urbanization, and cooperative development of entire regions.
Hainan and Chongqing, already mentioned above as apparent experiments in province shrinking, can also be seen as experiments in the abolishment of prefectures. Hainan has two prefecture-level cities, but those control only urban districts (i.e. their own urbanized area); all the counties of Hainan are under the direct charge of the province, with no prefecture-level intermediary. Chongqing, which is province-sized (despite its status as a municipality), has no intermediate prefecture-level subdivisions of any sort.Special administrative regions
Defunct Provinces
Proposed Reforms for the Administrative Divisions of China
Redrawing the provinces
Making the provinces smaller
Abolishing the prefecture level