Administrative divisions of China
| Interior | Mongolia | Tibet | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province (省) |
Special Municipality (特別市) |
Territory | Territory | |
| Prefecture (道) |
City (市) |
Alliance | Spyi khyab | |
| Region (署) | ||||
| County (縣) |
Banner | Rdzong | ||
| District (區) | ||||
| Township (鄉鎮) |
District (區) | |||
| Village (村) |
Commune (里) | |||
Province
China has historically been and continues to be reliant upon an administrative hierarchy to carry out policies given at a higher level and to monitor this activity. A perennial fear was that a province's self-sufficiency placed it at risk of secession or warlordism. Provinces typically contained tens of millions, if not over 100 million, of residents, comparable in population to European states. Measures to suppress self-sufficiency as separate states include deliberately indefensible borders, separate civil, judicial, and defence offices, and collegiate leadership. Such countermeasures, in turn, were associated even before the modern era with inefficient administration, while the risk of secession they were meant to quell never fully abated.
In the 1920s, a widespread demand (廢省存道) existed to abolish the province (行省) as the first tier of autonomous administration, retaining the prefecture (道) under it in the province's role. Yet economically speaking, China's indigence encumbered public infrastructure and industry investments, and the obvious solution was to back such investments with a province's superior financial strength. The Dai-ming Incident of 1922 is an oft-cited example of the danger of smaller local governments selling public land without restraint: the Dai-ming Prefecture sold 22% of the prefecture's land and mortgaged future income streams in an effort to fund railway investments, resulting in a costly redemptive payment for the same by the central Ministry of Finance. The scheme was later discovered to have financially benefited its proponent, the Dai-ming Prefect.
Currently, Chinese law positions a province as a corporate body with autonomy over a list of constitutional powers (the "provincial list") and also as an executive agency of, and funded by, the central government (under the "shared list"). Comparatively, a province's autonomy is limited vis-à-vis its functions as an agency, and thus its budget is also largely funded by the central government. Nevertheless, a province still possesses considerable independent financial strength that is still a source of unease. To address these issues, the National Assembly included the establishment and authority of prefectures as part of the model basic law for provinces. As prefects were centrally-appointed, it was thought they would be able to delay or at least caution against inappropriate provincial policies. Additionally, prefects were to assist in localizing provincial policies and focusing provincial resources.
As opposed to the county whose executive authority is vested in a presidential mayor, a province's executive power is collegiate and responsible to the legislative power. Whenever a province exercised its autonomous executive powers the provincial government must pass the matter by consensus, meant to curb controversial policies. With exception of major cities, provincial policies are also locally executed by a prefect represented in the provincial government as a voting member when a devolved power was exercised. These checks render a provincial government less able to enact sweeping change or seek independence, but it has likewise been criticized for complication and inefficiency.
List of provinces and prefectures
| Province | Provincial capital | Prefectures and cities | Counties |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chiang-su Province | Chin-chiang City | Hwai-hai Prefecture (淮海道) | |
| Suchow Prefecture (蘇州道) | |||
| Yangchow Prefecture (揚州道) | |||
| Chin-chiang City (鎮江市) | |||
| Chen-chiang Province | Hangchow City | Hangchow Prefecture (杭州道) | |
| Kwai-ki Prefecture (會稽道) | |||
| Kimhwa Prefecture (金華道) | |||
| Ho-peh Province | Paoting-fu | Tsing-ho Prefecture (清河道) | |
| Dai-ming (大名道) | |||
| Jehol (熱河道) | |||
| Sun-tien (順天道) | |||
| Ho-nan Province | Kai-fung | Kai-fung Prefecture | |
| Ho-pei Prefecture | |||
| Niu-yang Prefecture | |||
| Ho-lo Prefecture | |||
| Kai-fung City | |||
| Chengchow City | |||
| Shantung Province | Chi-nan City | Chi-nan Prefecture | |
| Lim-tsi Prefecture | |||
| Ku-fuk Prefecture | |||
| Example | Example | Example | |
| Example | Example | Example |