Political divisions of the Republic of China

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• 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

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

• 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

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

Municipalities

Counties

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

Claims over mainland China and Mongolia

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 China

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.

See also

• 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)

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]

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