Political divisions of the Republic of China
The
Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan currently administers two historical
provinces of China (one completely and a small part of another one) and centrally administers two
direct-controlled municipalities:
*
Taiwan Province; consists of the
island of Taiwan, except the two municipalities, plus Penghu county (
Pescadores Islands) and a number of
outlying islands** Sixteen
counties** Five
provincial cities*
Fujian Province; consists of several islands offshore of the
Chinese mainland:
**
Kinmen County (Quemoy)
** part of
Lienchiang County, namely
Matsu*
Kaohsiung Municipality (also administering
Dongsha Islands and
Taiping Island of the
South China Sea Islands)
*
Taipei MunicipalityThe two provinces have been effectively streamlined in administration, leaving the two centrally administered municipalities, five provincial municipalities, and eighteen counties as the principal divisions of the Republic of China.
Additionally, the ROC has not officially renounced its
claims over mainland China and Mongolia. This results in a division of the mainland into 35 provinces, different from that of the current PRC system.
The number at the end are the amount of entities as of 2004, in areas under ROC control:
*
Municipality (2)
** District (區; qū; cyu) (23)
*** Village (里; lǐ; li) (912)
**** Neighborhood (鄰; lín; lin) (17988)
* Province (2)
**
Provincial municipality (5)
*** District (26)
**** Village (831)
***** Neighborhood (17,091)
**
County (18)
***
County-administered city (32)
**** Village (里; lǐ; li)
***** Neighborhood
*** Township: 226 rural townships (鄉; xiāng; siang) and 61 urban townships (鎮; zhèn; jhen)
**** Village (村; cūn; cun)
***** Neighborhood
The lowest level, the neighbourhood, is not named, but only enumerated (numbered starting from one in each village). They number in 146,112 (127,242 in Taiwan Province), under 7,809 villages (6,838 in Taiwan). There are altogether 369 secondary entities (rural and urban townships, districts (of both types of municipalities), and county-administered cities).
There are a number cities and counties which are similarly named, but in the ROC administrative scheme, they are completely separate and unconnected. Tainan City and Tainan County, for example, have no special administrative connection with each other. In most cases, the area designated as the city is much smaller than the actual metropolitan area, in contrast with the situation on mainland China where the administrative city tends to be larger than the actual metropolitan area.
The
romanization used for ROC
placenames is
Wade-Giles, however consistenly ignoring the punctuations (apostrophes and hyphens), except "Keelung" and "Quemoy", which are the more popular versions of romanization. "Chiayi" and "Yilan" are slightly modified forms of the Wade-Giles version, "Chia-i" and "I-lan", respectively. After
Tongyong Pinyin was adopted by the current administration in 2002, most municipalities, provinces, and county-level entities retained Wade-Giles, with the aforementioned exceptions. Taipei is the only municipality that uses Hanyu Pinyin as standard and most street signs in Taipei has been replaced with Hanyu Pinyin except for the place name "Taipei" that has retained the Wade-Giles spelling.
In
Taiwan Province:
In
Fujian Province (Wade-Giles: Fuchien):
In
Taiwan Province:
 |
Political divisions of the Republic of China |
|
Maps of the official borders of the Republic of China include mainland China and Mongolia |
After its loss of
mainland China to the
Communist Party of China in the
Chinese Civil War and its exile to Taiwan in 1949, the
Kuomintang continued to regard the Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China and hoped to recover the mainland one day. Although in 1991 President
Lee Teng-hui stated that the ROC does not challenge the right of the
Communist Party of China to rule in the mainland, the ROC has never formally (by means of the
National Assembly) renounced sovereignty over mainland China (including
Sinkiang and
Tibet) and
Greater Mongolia. Most observers feel that the ruling
Democratic Progressive Party would much prefer to officially renounce such sovereignty. This
ambiguous situation results in large part because a formal renouncement of sovereignty over mainland China could be taken as a declaration of
Taiwan independence, which would be unpopular among some circles on Taiwan and could likely bring about military action by the
People's Republic of China.
Accordingly, the official first-order divisions of Republic of China remain the
historical divisions of China immediately prior to the loss of mainland China by the KMT with Taipei and Kaohsiung elevated as central municipalities. These are: 35
provinces, 2 areas, 1
special administrative region, 14 centrally-administered (provincial-level)
municipalities, 14 leagues, and 4 special banners. For second-order divisions, under provinces and special administrative regions, there are counties, province-controlled cities (56), bureaus (34) and management bureaus (7). Under provincial-level municipalities there are districts, and under leagues there are banners (127).
Maps of
China and the world published in Taiwan sometimes show provincial and national boundaries as they were in
1949, not matching the current administrative structure as decided by the
Communist Party of China post-1949 and including
outer Mongolia, northern
Burma, and
Tannu Uriankhai (part of which is present-day
Tuva) as part of China (territories over which the PRC has renounced sovereignty). Recent moves by the DPP administration have been changing maps in school textbooks and official maps issued by the government to reflect the current divisions instituted by the PRC.
See also: History of the political divisions of ChinaHistorically the most controversial part of the political division system of the ROC has been the existence of
Taiwan Province as its existence was part of a larger controversy over the
political status of Taiwan. In the mid-1990s, the provincial government was essentially stripped of almost all of its authority, but it remains a streamlined entity.
There has been some criticism of the current administrative scheme as being inefficient and inconducive to regional planning. In particular, most of the administrative cities are much smaller than the actual metropolitan areas, and there are no formal means for coordinating policy between an administrative city and its surrounding areas.
However, the likelihood of consolidation remains low. Many of the cities have a political geography which may be very different from its surrounding counties, making the prospect of consolidation to be very politically charged. For example, while the
Kuomintang argues that combining
Taipei City,
Taipei County, and
Keelung City into a metropolitan Taipei region would allow for better regional planning, the
Democratic Progressive Party argues that this is merely an excuse to eliminate the government of Taipei County, which it controls, by swamping it with votes from
Taipei City and
Keelung City, which tend to vote
Kuomintang.[
1]
*
political divisions of China*
List of Taiwanese counties and cities by area*
List of Taiwanese counties and cities by population*
List of Taiwanese counties and cities by population density*
political divisions of Taiwan (1895-1945)*
內"部地"司 (Department of Land Administration, Ministry of the Interior): Romanizations for county-level and township-level entities
*
County and city flags*
Map of ROC (including Quemoy and Matsu)*
Fuchien Provincial Government*
Taiwan Provincial Government
