According to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, the administrative division of China is as follows:
(1) The country is divided into provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government;
(2) Provinces and autonomous regions are divided into autonomous prefectures, counties, autonomous counties and cities; and
(3) Counties and autonomous counties are divided into townships, ethnic townships, and towns.
Municipalities directly under the Central Government and other large cities are divided into districts and counties. Autonomous prefectures are divided into counties, autonomous counties and cities.
All autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties are ethnic autonomous areas.
The state may establish special administrative regions when necessary.
Currently, there are 34 provincial-level administrative areas in China—four municipalities directly under the Central Government, 23 provinces, five autonomous regions and two special administrative regions.
Restructuring at the primary level. Towns and townships
are the primary levels of administrative power in China. The large numbers
of government institutions and staff at primary levels have resulted
in heavy burdens on farmers. Statistics show that farmers nationwide
are supporting over 13.61 million government employees at the town/township
level, 68 farmers supporting one employee on average. Overstaffed government
organizations at primary levels have constituted 40 percent of the actual
burdens of farmers.
In 1998, China began to streamline its primary levels of government.
By the end of 2003, 25 provinces had accomplished their task of cutting
the number of towns/townships. The total number of towns and townships
was reduced from 46,400 to 39,000, 7,400 less than five years ago.
Community service. Following the streamlining of primary-level
organizations, urbanization is being accelerated. In 2003, there were
658,000 villagers committees nationwide, 23,000 or 3.4 percent less
than 2002, and 78,000 urban residents committees (or community residents
committees), a decrease of 7,000 or 8.2 percent. The number of townships
reduced 4.9 percent to 18,000; that of towns decreased 2.7 percent to
20,000; and that of urban neighborhoods increased 4.2 percent to 6,000.
Investment in the construction of community service facilities has been
increased. At the end of 2003, there were 9,251 community service centers
nationwide, an increase of 431 or 4.9 percent compared with 2002. There
were also 192,000 community service facilities in urban areas throughout
the country.
Direct community election. As of the latter half of
2003, direct election of community administrative organizations was
carried out on a trial basis in all the capital cities and prefectural-level
cities and some county-level cities in west China's 11 provinces, autonomous
regions and municipalities, except Tibet.
The Organic Law of the Urban Residents Committees, effective as of 1990,
explicitly stipulates that members of a community residents committee
shall be elected by all residents or household representatives of the
community. However, direct election of community residents committees
only began to be tried in some cities of the economically developed
eastern region in the late 1990s.
