Political divisions of the Republic of China

The Republic of China currently administers two historical provinces of China (one completely and one for a small part) and centrally administers two municipalities:

• Taiwan Province; consists of the Taiwanese main island, except the two municipalities, plus Penghu county (Pescadores Islands)
  • Sixteen counties
  • Five provincial cities
• Fujian Province; consists of several islands offshore of the Chinese mainland:
  • Kinmen County (Quemoy)
  • part of Lianjiang County, namely Matsu
• Kaohsiung
• Taipei

This extremely ambigious situation results in large part because a formal renouncement of sovereignty over the Mainland 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 PRC. See Political status of Taiwan for more information.

Maps of China and the world published in Taiwan will sometimes show provincial boundaries as they were in 1949 which do not match the current administrative structure as decided by the Communist Party of China post-1949. As such, they show the 35 provinces, 12 municipalities, 1 special administrative region, and 2 regions that existed in 1949, along with the more recently elevated municipalities of Taipei and Kaohsiung. (See History_of_the_political_divisions_of_China#Republic_of_China)

Table of contents

1 Structural hierarchy 2 Romanization 3 Municipalities 4 Counties 5 Provincial municipalities 6 Criticism of political divisions 7 See also 8 External links

Structural hierarchy

• Municipality (2)
  • District (區) (23)
    • Village (里) (912)
      • Neighborhood (鄰) (17988)
• Province (2)
  • Provincial municipality (5)
    • District (26)
      • Village (831)
        • Neighborhood (17,091)
  • County (18)
    • County-administered city (32)
      • Village (里)
        • Neighborhood
    • Township: 226 rural townships (鄉 siang) and 61 urban townships (鎮 jhen)
      • Village (村)
        • Neighborhood

There are a number cities and counties which are similiarly 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 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.

Compare to Political divisions of China#Summary

Romanization

Municipalities

Counties

In Fujian Province (Wade-Giles: Fuchien):

Romanization	Chinese	Wade-Giles	Hanyu Pinyin	Capital
Lienchiang County (Matsu)	連江縣	Lien-chiang	Liánjiāng	Nangan Township
Kinmen County (Quemoy)	金門縣	Chin-men	Jīnmén	Jincheng Township

Provincial municipalities

[1]

Historically 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 consoldiation remains low. Many of the cities have a political geography which may be very different from its surround 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.

See also

• 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

• 內政部地政司 (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)