Reform of the administrative divisions of China
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In recent years there have been calls to reform the administrative divisions and levels of China, which is defined either the People's Republic of China (PRC; China) or the Republic of China (ROC; Taiwan).
The abolishment of
Although actual proposals differ in their details, many of the proposals contain the following points:
Redrawing the provinces
The current province boundaries of China were mostly drawn during the
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, or simply lead to increasing regionalism.
Making the provinces smaller
Proponents point to the size of current provinces, such as
Opponents of province shrinking believe that increasing the number of provinces would simply increase the inefficiency of governmental
A variation on this theme is a call to increase the number of
Abolishing the prefecture level
This proposal has recently gathered quite a lot of popularity. The reasons are based on the history of
By the
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
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
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 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.
In addition, the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Hubei, and Henan have initiated a number of reforms, giving counties a wide range of rights currently held by prefectures.
Increasing the size of counties and townships
The abolishment of
Proponents of this believe that the sheer size of the Chinese bureaucracy (and hence, the sheer amount of resources that it consumes) is due to the extraordinary number of counties and townships—and they believe that the number can be reduced.
Opponents of this believe that the population density of China means that tiny counties and townships are needed for effective government. They also claim that any drastic change to grassroots-level government would have adverse effects on social stability.
Bypassing the provincial hierarchy
Another reform is to have certain institutions of the central government form institutions which completely bypass the number provincial hierarchies. The model for this is
See also
References
- Yang, Dali. Remaking the Chinese Leviathan: Market Transition and the Politics of Governance in China. Stanford University Press, 2004.