Administrative divisions of China

Due to China's large population and area, the administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since ancient times. The constitution of the People's Republic of China provides for three de jure levels of government. Currently, however, there are five practical ( de facto) levels of local government: the province, prefecture, county, township, and village. Since the seventeenth century, provincial boundaries in China have remained largely static. Major changes since then have been the reorganization of provinces in the northeast after the establishment of the People's Republic of China and the formation of autonomous regions, based on Soviet ethnic policies. The provinces serve an important cultural role in China, as people tend to identify with their native province.

Levels

The Constitution of the People's Republic of China provides for three levels: the province, county, and township. However, two more levels have been inserted in actual implementation: the prefecture, under provinces; and the village, under townships. There is a sixth level, the district public office, below counties, but it is being abolished. The People's Republic of China administers 33 province-level regions, 333 prefecture-level regions, 2,862 county-level regions, 41,636 township-level regions and even more village-level regions. Each of the levels correspond to a level in the Civil service of the People's Republic of China.

Summary

This table summarizes the divisions of the area administered by the People's Republic of China as of December 31, 2005.

Province level

The People's Republic of China administers 33 province-level divisions, including 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions: Provinces are theoretically subservient to the PRC central government, but in practice provincial officials have large 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. Most of the provinces, with the exception of the provinces in the northeast, have boundaries which were established long ago in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Sometimes provincial borders veer markedly away from cultural or geographical boundaries. This was an attempt by the imperial government to discourage separatism and warlordism through a divide and rule policy. Nevertheless, provinces have come to 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. The most recent administrative changes have included the elevation of Hainan (1988) and Chongqing (1997) to provincial level status and the organization of Hong Kong (1997) and Macau (1999) as Special Administrative Regions. Province-level governments vary in details of organization:

List of province-level subdivisions

Notes: ¹: as of 2004 ²: per km² ³: km² †: Since its founding in 1949, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has considered Taiwan to be its 23rd province. However, the PRC has never controlled Taiwan. The Republic of China (ROC, "Taiwan") currently controls Taiwan which it governs as Taiwan Province, consisting of Taiwan island and Penghu. The ROC also controls one county of Fuchien (or Fukien) province: Kinmen; and part of a second county: Lienchiang.

List of former provinces

Prefecture level

Prefecture-level divisions are the second level of the administrative structure. Most provinces are divided into only prefecture-level cities and contain no other second-level administrative units. Of the 22 provinces and 5 autonomous regions only 3 provinces ( Yunnan, Guizhou, Qinghai) and 2 autonomous regions ( Xinjiang, Tibet) have more than three second-level or prefecture-level divisions that are not prefecture-level cities. As of December 31, 2005, there were 333 prefecture-level divisions:

County level

As of December 31, 2005, there were 2,872 county-level divisions:

Township level

Village level

The village level serves as an organizational division (census, mail system) and does not have much importance in political representative power. Basic local divisions like neighborhoods and communities are not informal like in the West, but have defined boundaries and designated heads (one per area): In urban areas, every subdistrict of a district of a city administers many communities or neighborhoods. Each of them have a neighborhood committee to administer the dwellers of that neighborhood or community. Rural areas are organized into village committees or villager groups. A "village" in this case can either be a natural village, one that spontaneously and naturally exists, or an administrative village, which is a bureaucratic entity.

Special cases

Although every single administrative division has a clearly defined level associated with it, sometimes an entity may be given more autonomy than its level allows for. For example, a few of the largest prefecture-level cities are given more autonomy. These are known as sub-provincial cities, meaning that they are given a level of power higher than a prefecture, but still lower than a province. Such cities are half a level higher than what they would normally be. Although these cities still belong to provinces, their special status gives them a high degree of autonomy within their respective provinces. A similar case exists with some county-level cities. Some county-level cities are given more autonomy. These cities are known as sub-prefecture-level cities, meaning that they are given a level of power higher than a county, but still lower than a prefecture. Such cities are also half a level higher than what they would normally be. Sub-prefecture-level cities are often not put into any prefecture (i.e. they are directly administered by their province). Examples are Pudong, Shanghai and Binhai, Tianjin. Although its status as a district of a direct-controlled municipality would define it as prefecture-level, the district head of Pudong is given sub-provincial powers. In other words, it is half a level higher than what it would normally be.

Ambiguity of the word "city" in China

Due to the complexity of the administrative divisions, the Chinese word "市"(shì) or in English "city", have many different meanings. By its political level, when a "city" is referred, it can be a:

LV 1 (provincial-level):
Municipality of China, for example, Beijing
LV 2 (prefecture-level):
Sub-provincial city, for example, Shenyang
Prefecture-level city, for example, Baoding
LV 3 (county-level):
Sub-prefecture-level city, for example, Jiyuan
County-level city, for example, Yiwu

When used in the statistical data, the word "city" may have three different meanings:

The area administrated by the city. For the municipality, the sub-provincial city, or the prefecture-level city, a "city" in this sense includes all of the counties, county-level cities, city districts that the city governed. For the Sub-prefecture-level city or the County-level city, it includes all of the subdistricts, towns and townships that it has.
The area comprised by its the urban city districts and suburb city districts. The difference between the urban district and the suburb districts is that an urban district is only comprised by the subdistricts, while a suburb district also have towns and townships to govern rural areas. In some sense, this definition is approximately the metropolitan area. This definition is not applied to the sub-prefecture-level city and the county-level city since they do not have city districts under them.
The urban area. Sometimes the urban area is referred as (市区 shìqū). For the municipality, the sub-provincial city, and the prefecture-level city, it is comprised by the urban city district and the adjacent subdistricts of the suburb city districts. For the sub-prefecture-level city and the county-level city, only central subdistricts are included. This definition is close to the strict meaning of "city" in western countries.

It is important to specify the definition of "city" when referring to statistical data of Chinese cities. Otherwise, confusion may arise. For example, Shanghai is the largest city in China by the population in the urban area, but it is a smaller city than Chongqing by the population within the administration area.

History

Before the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, China was ruled by a network of kings, nobles, and tribes. The rivalry of these groups culminated in the Warring States Period, and the state of Qin eventually emerged dominant. The Qin Dynasty was determined not to allow China to fall back into disunity, and therefore designed the first hierarchical administrative divisions in China, based on two levels: jùn commanderies and xiàn counties. The Han Dynasty that came immediately after added zhōu (usually translated as "provinces") as a third level on top, forming a three-tier structure. The Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty abolished commanderies, and added circuits (dào, later lù under the Song) on top, maintaining a three-tier system that lasted through the Song Dynasty. (As a second-level division, zhou are translated as "prefectures".) The Mongol-established Yuan Dynasty introduced the modern precursors to provinces, bringing the number of levels to four. This system was then kept more or less intact until the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty to rule China. The Republic of China streamlined the levels to just provinces and counties in 1928, and made the first attempt to extend political administration beyond the county level by establishing townships below counties. This was also the system officially adopted by the People's Republic of China in 1949, which defined the administrative divisions of China as three levels: provinces, counties, and townships. In practice, however, more levels were inserted. The ROC government soon learned that it was not feasible for a province to directly govern tens and sometimes hundreds of counties. Started from Jiangxi province in 1935, Prefectures were later inserted between provinces and counties. They continue be ubiquitously applied by the PRC government to nearly all areas of China until 1980s. Since then, most of the prefectures were converted into prefecture-level cities. Greater administrative areas were inserted on top of provinces by the PRC government, but they were soon abolished, in 1954. District public offices were inserted between counties and townships; once ubiquitous as well, they are currently being abolished, and very few remain. The most recent developments major developments have been the establishment of Chongqing as a municipality and the creation of Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions.

Reform

In recent years there have been calls to reform the administrative divisions and levels of China. Rumours of an impending major reform have also spread through various online bulletin boards. Consulte-General of the People's Repiblic of China in New York: 民政部官员：“中国将要设50个省区市”报道失实 The district public offices is an ongoing reform to remove an extra level of administration from between the county and township levels. There have also been calls to abolish the prefecture level, and some provinces have transferred some of the power prefectures currently hold to the counties they govern. There are also calls to reduce the size of the provinces. The ultimate goal is to reduce the different administration levels from five to three, (Provincial, County, Village) reducing the amount of corruption as well as the number of government workers, in order to lower the budget.

On Air

Today