Administrative divisions of China
Administrative divisions of China are geographic areas assigned to a local authority for the purposes of administration. China possesses a two-level system of local government based on the province and county, where residents have a direct role in determining their leadership. Other levels of authorities exist but are subject to the authority of either a province or county.
As China is considered a unitary state, provinces also agencies of the central government (and likewise counties are agencies of the central and provincial governments) to a certain extent prescribed by the constitution and central statute. Nevertheless, there are portfolio items that are within the exclusive purview of provinces or counties with which higher levels of government cannot theoretically interfere.
Table
| China-proper | Mongolia | Tibet | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province[1] (省) |
Special Municipality (特別市) | |||||
| Prefecture (道) |
City (市) |
Alliance | Spyi khyab | |||
| County (縣) |
Banner | Rdzong | ||||
| District (區) | ||||||
| Commune (鄉) |
Township (鎮) |
Town (市) |
District (區) | |||
| Village (村) |
Commune (里) | |||||
- ↑ Administrative divisions in bold are also local governments.
Province
A province under Chinese law exists as an autonomous corporate body with respect to a list of constitutional powers (the "provincial list") and also as an executive agency of the central government (the "shared list"). A province may, with the assent of its legislature, autonomously enact provincial laws pertaining to the provincial list; a province likewise enact laws pertaining to the shared list if authorized by central law. But it is a common yet controversial situation where the central laws do not provide a role for the provincial legislature and instead authorizes the provincial government to enact local laws directly. A province's autonomy is comparatively limited vis-à-vis its functions as an agency of the central government, which also provides for most of its budget, but it does have independent sources of funding from taxation and investment.
A province has a legislature and a government to exercise its legislative and executive functions respectively. Since a province is both an autonomous authority and an agency of the central government, a provincial government is accountable to both the provincial legislature and to the central government. Thus, provincial ministers are appointed by the central government with the assent of the provincial legislature, and it is deemed inappropriate for the central government to reject the legislature's decisions.
China's historical rulers had perennial fears about a province's risk of secession or warlordism. Measures to suppress self-sufficiency as separate states include deliberately indefensible borders, separate civil, judicial, and defence offices, and collegiate leadership. Such countermeasures were associated even before the modern era with inefficient administration, yet the risks they were meant to address never fully abated.
Several major changes at the provincial level have occurred in the history of the republic. While this is nowhere stated, the convention requires that a special resolution be passed by the Constituent Assembly.
- In 1928, a plan to set up provinces in six border regions (Chahar, Ning-hsia, Tsing-hai, Suey-yuen, Chuan-pien, Jehol) was questioned from both financial and cultural perspectives. These areas were so sparsely populated that projected revenues would make them nearly 100% dependent on central subvention, and ethnically there were already government structures that do not translate to a conventional provincial model of government. Thus, in 1930, these areas were made prefectures or divisions of existing provinces.
- The area corresponding with the Qing dynasty Kiang-su and An-hui provinces are not part of any province but governed at the provincial level by the Kiang-nam Regional Commission (江南地方政務委員會 or 南政會).
- Throughout the 30s and 40s, the Communist guerillas expanded their area of influence in Kweichow Province so that by 1950 two-thirds of the province was under their effective rule. In 1951, a coalition government proposal including both KMT and Communist guerillas was announced, as a precondition of ceasefire imposed by the guerillas. Despite central government protest, the proposal proceeded, while the rest of the country deemed it unacceptable. Shan-tung Province's premier threatened to resign if the central government failed to end the coalition. A special Constituent Assembly session in 1953 abolished Kweichow Province and merged it into Yun-nan Province, which despite its distance was relatively peaceful.
- The provinces of Hu-peh and Hu-nan were merged by resolution in 1960 to strengthen their economies.
Since a province may oversee many dozens of counties and a highly diverse demographic, there is a variety of intermediary organs to support provincial governments in managing affairs more locally. These organs are creatures of the provincial government and support both autonomous policies and the province's function as an agency of the central government. Depending on the province these can be subjected to each other's administrative oversight.
- Prefectures (道) exist over ordinary, mostly-rural counties in China-proper.
- Governance Divisions (管理署) exist in inaccessible areas or areas mainly settled by ethnic minorities, typically under a prefecture. These areas may be elevated to prefectural status pending sufficient development.
- Security Divisions (保安署) exist in areas prone to armed conflicts, typically under a prefecture.
- Park Division (公園署) exist to manage nature reserves, typically under a province.
- Clearing Bureau (墾殖局) are temporary agencies to manage the settlement of a certain area before a formal local government is established, typically under a prefecture.
- Development Bureau (實業局) are agencies to manage industrial zones, typically under a province.
- Commissions of various kinds (委員會) are agencies managing other areas identified by the provincial authority.
Prefecture
There are currently 61 prefectures (道) in China, and the mean number of prefectures in a province is 3. Provinces on the peripheries of China-proper have more prefectures largely due to sparsely-populated areas assigned to their governance; Szechuan has 6 prefectures, Ho-peh and Sham-si 5 each.
Each prefecture has a commissioner (委員) appointed by the central government subject to the provincial government's prior consent. There are also one or two assistant prefects (助理委員) appointed by the provincial government. The central nomination of prefectural official is an important measure by which the central government retains oversight over provincial autonomy within the executive branch.
A prefecture's role in administration is in very large part set forth in provincial law, since they are transparent to central law; that is, the central government will always delegate authority to the province, while the province may decide to use it at the provincial level or permit further customization at a sub-provincial level. Often, a provincial government would prefer to delegate to prefectures or divisions, as opposed to counties, because a county's magistrate is accountable to the local electorate and in a position to negotiate and fix provincial subventions. In contrast, prefectures and divisions are creatures of the province and not able to negotiate for fixed subventions, permitting greater fiscal flexibility for the provincial coffers.
The Constitution explicitly states that provinces may delegate tasks to counties, and the prevailing understanding is that counties are in turn entitled to provincial funding to defray these tasks. Since a county's magistrate is elected and its budget also subject to legislative approval, the magistrate is under pressure to ensure that the province promises ample budget beforehand to avoid encumbering the county budget with provincial tasks. In practice, the province has little oversight over how the provincial budget is used, and the county little incentive thus to assist the province. This interface difficulty is argued by authors like Robert Hess to be one reason why China's provinces maintain apparently-inefficient structures like prefectures and divisions, which allow the province to micro-manage issues already delegated or to undertake them in a way that is localized but undelegated.
Where appropriate, a prefecture's administrative office (行政公署) will often mirror the provincial government's structure; where the provincial government's executive departments are called t'ing (廳), a prefectural one is usually called ch'uh (處).
In the 1920s, a widespread demand (廢省存道) called for abolishing the province as the highest tier of autonomous administration, retaining the prefecture under it in the province's role. Yet China's indigence encumbered infrastructure and industry investments, and the most proximate 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.
Divisions
Other than prefectures, provinces may provide for the establishment of geographic subdivisions known as "divisions" (署). Divisions may serve a specific policy or legal function or a general administrative function. The most prominent kinds of divisions are Internal Security Divisions (保安署) and Supervisory Divisions (督察署), the former being an example of a geographic division for specific legal function, and latter, a general administrative division.
During the time of the Sino-Korean War, each province was required to establish an Internal Security HQ that served to ensure internal order by transfering certain government functions to the Ministry of Defence's supervision. The premier served as ex officio commander, but the HQ's executive officer was a uniformed military officer appointed by the Ministry of Defence.
Cities
A city is a large, urban area under provincial jurisdiction with at least 10,000 residents living in an urban area. The locations of the central government and each provincial government are by default considered cities, while other cities can be established by charter. There are currently 87 cities in China.
A city's administrative status depends on the charter establishing it. A city established under a central charter is also known as a special municipality or central city (院轄市) and has the same ceremonial precedence as a province; the mayor of a special municipality has the same paygrade as provincial ministers. Under a provincial charter, a city's administrative status is fluid and depends on how the province positions it: in some areas it may be on the same level as prefectures, and in others it may be considered a unit with a nearby county. Lastly, a city can also exist under a county charter, but this is a somewhat tenuous status that only exists because some urban areas exceed the legal ceiling for towns (1,000 households) yet have not received a provincial city charter. These are not counted as cities within the meaning of the Autonomous Government of Cities Act or the formal roster of 87 cities above.
A city is a point-like entity, and so there is little sense to assign it certain provincial roles, such as highway construction, that naturally concern a large geographic area that a city would not have. Similarly, tasks such as agriculture, forestry, and mineral extraction may also have little purchase on a city's tasks, though they may not be completely absent from the city. A city's charter will therefore make provision by unifying the city with a surrounding province, prefecture, division, or county for such purposes. On the other hand, tasks like commercial regulation, sanitation, infrastructure construction etc. will, through a city's population density, require a different form of management from the surrounding rural areas, and in these areas a city's autonomy is the most pronounced.
There are two titles shih (市) and fu (府) that designate cities in China. There is no legal difference between them, but the latter is conventionally only used for cities of historical significance, particularly those that have been called fu during the Ts'yeng dynasty. For example, the Ts'yeng capital before 1911, also known as Peking in English, is called shun-tien-fu (順天府) in Chinese. Formerly when this was still the capital city, it was designated as pek-king-shun-tien-fu (北京順天府), i.e. "shun-tien-fu, the northern capital".
List of provinces and prefectures
| Province | Prefectures and cities | Divisions | Counties |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kiang-nam Commission (江南等處政務委員會) |
Kinlin Prefecture (金陵道) | 2 | 14 |
| Shanghai Prefecture (上海道) | 5 | 50 | |
| Hwaiyang Prefecture (淮海道) | 2 | 31 | |
| Anking Prefecture (安慶道) | 3 | 14 | |
| Muhu Prefecture (蕪湖道) | 2 | 14 | |
| Hwaisih Prefecture (淮泗道) | 3 | 14 | |
| Chen-kiang Province (浙江省) |
Chien-tang Prefecture (錢塘道) | 3 | 25 |
| Kwaiki Prefecture (會稽道) | 3 | 36 | |
| Kimhwa Prefecture (金華道) | 4 | 34 | |
| Hangchow City (杭州市) | |||
| Ho-peh Province (河北省) |
Tsing-ho Prefecture (清河道) | 4 | 40 |
| Dai-ming Prefecture (大名道) | 6 | 46 | |
| Sun-tien Prefecture (順天道) | 5 | 40 | |
| Jehol Prefecture (熱河道) | 3 | 34 | |
| Sing-ho Prefecture (興和道) | 3 | 24 | |
| Paoting City (保定市) | |||
| Ho-nan Province (河南省) |
Kai-fung Prefecture (開封道) | 5 | 51 |
| Niu-yang Prefecture (汝陽道) | 5 | 38 | |
| Ho-lo Prefecture (河洛道) | 4 | 46 | |
| Kai-fung City (開封市) | |||
| Chengchow City (鄭州市) | |||
| Shantung Province (山東省) |
Chi-nan Prefecture (濟南道) | 5 | 48 |
| Lim-tsi Prefecture (臨淄道) | 3 | 40 | |
| Ku-fuk Prefecture (曲阜道) | 5 | 51 | |
| Chi-nan City (濟南市) | |||
| Shansi Province (山西省) |
Ki-ning Prefecture (冀寧道) | 3 | 43 |
| Yan-men Prefecture (雁門道) | 2 | 46 | |
| Chahar Prefecture (察哈爾道) | 0 | 7 | |
| Yellow River Prefecture (黃河道) | 7 | 60 | |
| Swei-yuen Prefecture (綏遠道) | 0 | 25 | |
| Taiyuan City (太原市) | |||
| Shamsi Province (陝西省) |
Shan-yang Prefecture (山陽道) | 6 | 54 |
| Lim-tiao Prefecture (臨洮道) | 4 | 36 | |
| Han-chung Prefecture (漢中道) | 2 | 31 | |
| Lan-chow Prefecture (蘭州道) | 4 | 39 | |
| Tsing-hai Prefecture (青海道) | 3 | 25 | |
| Si-an City (西安市) | |||
| Taiwan Province (臺灣省) |
no prefectures | 3 | 8 |
| Taipei City (臺北市) | |||
| Keelung City (基隆市) | |||
| Taichung City (臺中市) | |||
| Tainan City (臺南市) | |||
| Kaohsiung City (高雄市) | |||
| Kiangsi Province (江西省) |
Yu-chang Prefecture (豫章道) | 5 | 43 |
| Kam-nam Prefecture (贛南道) | 3 | 38 | |
| Sun-yang Prefecture (潯陽道) | 3 | 29 | |
| Nam-chang City (南昌市) | |||
| Hu-peh Province (湖北省) |
Kiang-han Prefecture (荊漢道) | 3 | 28 |
| Siang-yang Prefecture (襄陽道) | 3 | 24 | |
| Kieng-nan Prefecture (荊南道) | 3 | 23 | |
| Han-kou City (漢口市) | |||
| Mu-chang City (武昌市) | |||
| Hu-nan Province (湖南省) |
Siang-kiang Prefecture (湘江道) | 5 | 40 |
| Heng-yang Prefecture (衡陽道) | 4 | 24 | |
| Yuen-ling Prefecture (沅陵道) | 3 | 21 | |
| Chang-sa City (長沙市) | |||
| Fukien Province (福建省) |
Min-hai Prefecture (閩海道) | 3 | 23 |
| Ha-mum Prefecture (廈門道) | 3 | 20 | |
| Kien-an Prefecture (建安道) | 4 | 30 | |
| Fuchow City (福州市) | |||
| Ha-mun City (廈門市) | |||
| Canton Province (廣東省) |
Yut-hoi Prefecture (粵海道) | 3 | 38 |
| Tsiu-tsun Prefecture (潮循道) | 4 | 31 | |
| Yum-lim Prefecture (欽廉道) | 3 | 26 | |
| Kiong-ngai Prefecture (瓊崖道) | 3 | 11 | |
| Canton City (廣州市) | |||
| Kwang-si Province (廣西省) |
Kwai-lum Prefecture (桂林道) | 5 | 55 |
| Tin-nam Prefecture (沺南道) | 3 | 33 | |
| Nam-ning Prefecture (南寧道) | 5 | 36 | |
| Kwai-lum City (桂林市) | |||
| Yun-nan Province (雲南省) |
Kin-chung Prefecture (黔東道) | 5 | 38 |
| Kwei-yang Prefecture (黔西道) | 3 | 29 | |
| Chin-yuen Prefecture (鎮遠道) | 4 | 34 | |
| Tien-chung Prefecture (闐中道) | 4 | 44 | |
| Pu-ni Prefecture (普洱道) | 5 | 38 | |
| Teng-yueh Prefecture (騰躍道) | 3 | 29 | |
| Dai-li City (大理市) | |||
| Kun-ming City (昆明市) | |||
| Szechuan Province (四川省) |
Tung-chuan Prefecture (東川道) | 5 | 45 |
| Kia-ling Prefecture (嘉陵道) | 3 | 33 | |
| Si-chuan Prefecture (西川道) | 4 | 39 | |
| Nan-chuan Prefecture (上南川道) | 4 | 33 | |
| Nan-chuan Prefecture (下南川道) | 3 | 37 | |
| Kang-ting Prefecture (康定道) | 5 | 31 | |
| Chung-king City (重慶市) | |||
| Cheng-tu City (成都市) | |||
| Sinkiang Province (新疆省) |
Ti-hwa Prefecture (迪化道) | 5 | 25 |
| Yi-li Prefecture (依黎道) | 5 | 18 | |
| Ho-tien Prefecture (和闐道) | 5 | 26 | |
| Ti-hwa City (迪化市) | |||
| Fong-tien Province (奉天省) |
Liaw-ning Prefecture (遼寧道) | 0 | 34 |
| Tiaw-chang Prefecture (洮昌道) | 0 | 41 | |
| Shen-yang City (瀋陽市) | |||
| Kilin Province (吉林省) |
no prefectures | 0 | 46 |
| Kilin City (吉林市) | |||
| He-lung-kiang Province (黑龍江省) |
no prefectures | 0 | 53 |
| Chichihar City (齊齊哈爾市) | |||
| Totals | 60 prefectures | 201 divisions | 2,364 counties |
Counties
Terminology
China uses a variety of inherited terminology inherited from its historical dynastic governments.
- 藩臺 fan-thoi, provincial government
- 道臺 dao-thoi, prefectural commissioner
- 府臺 fu-thoi, city's mayor