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 Municipality

The 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.

Structural hierarchy

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.

Romanization

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.

Municipalities

Romanization	Chinese	Tongyong Pinyin	Hanyu Pinyin	Wade-Giles
Taipei City	台北市	TáiBěi	Táiběi	T'ai2-pei3
Kaohsiung City	高雄市	GaoSyóng	Gāoxióng	Kao1-hsiung2

Counties

In Taiwan Province:

Romanization	Chinese	Tongyong Pinyin	Hanyu Pinyin	Wade-Giles	Capital
Chiayi County	嘉義縣	JiaYì	Jiāyì	Chia1-i4	Taibao City
Changhua County	彰化縣	JhangHuà	Zhānghuà	Chang1-hua4	Changhua City
Hsinchu County	新竹縣	SinJhú	Xīnzhú	Hsin1-chu2	Jhubei City
Hualien County	花蓮縣	HuaLián	Huālián	Hua1-lien2	Hualien City
Kaohsiung County	高雄縣	GaoSyóng	Gāoxióng	Kao1-hsiung2	Fongshan City
Miaoli County	苗栗縣	MiáoLì	Miáolì	Miao2-li4	Miaoli City
Nantou County	南投縣	NánTóu	Nántóu	Nan2-t'ou2	Nantou City
Penghu County (Pescadores)	澎湖縣	PéngHú	Pénghú	P'eng2-hu2	Magong City
Pingtung County	屏東縣	PíngDong	Píngdōng	P'ing2-tung1	Pingtung City
Taichung County	台中縣	TáiJhong	Táizhōng	T'ai2-chung1	Fongyuan City
Tainan County	台南縣	TáiNán	Táinán	T'ai2-nan2	Sinying City
Taipei County	台北縣	TáiBěi	Táiběi	T'ai2-pei3	Banciao City
Taitung County	台東縣	TáiDong	Táidōng	T'ai2-tung1	Taitung City
Taoyuan County	桃園縣	TáoYuán	Táoyuán	T'ao2-yüan2	Taoyuan City
Yilan County	宜蘭縣	YíLán	Yílán	I2-lan2	Yilan City
Yunlin County	雲林縣	YúnLín	Yúnlín	Yün2-lin2	Douliou City

In Fujian Province (Wade-Giles: Fuchien):

Romanization	Chinese	Tongyong Pinyin	Hanyu Pinyin	Wade-Giles	Capital
Lienchiang County (Matsu)	連江縣	LiánJiang	Liánjiāng	Lien2-chiang1	Nangan Township
Kinmen County (Quemoy)	金門縣	JinMén	Jīnmén	Chin1-men2	Jincheng Township

Provincial municipalities

In Taiwan Province:

Romanization	Chinese	Tongyong Pinyin	Hanyu Pinyin	Wade-Giles
Chiayi City	嘉義市	JiaYì	Jiāyì	Chia1-i4
Hsinchu City	新竹市	SinJhú	Xīnzhú	Hsin1-chu2
Keelung City	基隆市	JiLóng	Jīlóng	Chi1-lung2
Taichung City	台中市	TáiJhong	Táizhōng	T'ai2-chung1
Tainan City	台南市	TáiNán	Táinán	T'ai2-nan2

Claims over 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.

Criticism of political divisions

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 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.

External links

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)
Fuchien Provincial Government
Taiwan Provincial Government