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A county-administered city is a third-level administrative division in the Republic of China (Taiwan) below a county, which in turn is below of a province. Under the administrative structure of the ROC, it is at the same level as a township or a district. Such cities are under the jurisdiction of counties. It is also the lowest-level city in Taiwan, below a city and a special municipality. There are 14 county-administered cities currently under ROC control.

History

The first administrative divisions entitled "city" were established in the 1920s when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. At this time cities were under the jurisdiction of prefectures. After the World War II, nine (9) out of eleven (11) prefectural cities established by the Japanese government were reorganized into provincial cities based on the Laws on the City Formation (市組織法).

However, the populations of Hualien (Karenkō) and Yilan (Giran) were too low to become a provincial city, but they were of more importance than urban townships. Thus the Scheme on the Local Rules in Various Counties and Cities of Taiwan Province (臺灣省各縣市實施地方自治綱要) provided for the creation of county-administered cities along with urban townships and rural townships.

In 1951, a large scale administrative division reorganization took place in Taiwan. The size of counties shrink and the county-administered districts were abolished. This puts county-administered cities and townships into the same level in the hierarchy. Four provincial cities were also downgraded to county-administered cities after this reorganization. Since county-administered cities are based on the law for Taiwan Province, Kinmen and Lienchiang Counties of Fukien Province do not have any city under their jurisdiction.

The population criterion was originally 50,000 in the 1940s, but was raised to 100,000 in 1959, again in 1977 to 150,000, and in 2015 it was lower back to 100,000. Under the current. Currently, the Local Government Act regulates the creation of a county-administered city, in which a city needs to have a population between 100,000 and 500,000 and occupies major political, economical and cultural roles. Not all existing county-administered cities are qualified for the population test, they were built for historical reasons.

Current county-administered cities

There are currently fourteen (14) county-administered cities, all in Taiwan Province:

Each county-administered city has its own local self-government bodies as stipulated in the Local Government Act: a city office (市公所) and a city council (市民代表大會). The mayor (市長) and members of the city council (市民代表) are elected by the residents of the city. A county-administered city is further divided into urban villages (里).

Timeline

Below, unless noted otherwise in parentheses, the newly created cities were towns that exceeded the 150,000 criteria.

Populous Townships

Townships with population more than 90,000, close to the upgrading criterion (as of March 2017)

• Caotun (草屯鎮; 98,330)
• Zhudong (竹東鎮; 96,877)
• Hemei (和美鎮; 91,159)

See also

• Administrative divisions of Taiwan
• Political divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945)
• Cities of Japan
• County (Taiwan)
• Township (Taiwan)

Notes

1. ^ Has an elected executive and an elected legislative council.
2. ^ Has an appointed district administrator for managing local affairs and carrying out tasks commissioned by superior agency.
3. Has an elected village administrator for managing local affairs and carrying out tasks commissioned by superior agency.

Notes

1. Also known as the Taiwan area or Tai–Min area (Chinese: 臺閩地區; lit. 'Taiwan–Fujian area')
2. The mainland area consists of Mainland China, Tibet and (previously) Outer Mongolia
3. Special municipalities, cities, and county-administered cities are all called shi (Chinese: 市; lit. 'city')
4. Nominal; provincial governments have been abolished
5. Constitutionally having the same structure as the free area, these are currently under the Chinese Communist Party control with a different structure
6. Sometimes called cities (Chinese: 市) or provincial cities (Chinese: 省轄市) to distinguish them from special municipalities and county-administered cities
7. There are two types of townships: rural townships or xīang (Chinese: 鄉) and urban townships or zhèn (Chinese: 鎮)
8. Villages in rural townships are known as cūn (Chinese: 村), those in other jurisdictions are known as lǐ (Chinese: 里)

Words in native languages

1. • Traditional Chinese script: 縣轄市
   • Mandarin Pinyin: Xiànxiáshì
   • Hokkien: Koān-hat-chhī

References

1. "Local governments". Office of the President Republic of China (Taiwan). Retrieved 4 December 2020.
2. "The Township and County-Administered City Mediation Act". Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
3. "Glossary of Names for Admin Divisions" (PDF). Taiwan Geographic Names Information Systems. The Ministry of Interior of ROC. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-12-28. Retrieved 2014-12-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

External links

• Media related to County-administered cities in Taiwan at Wikimedia Commons

• Subdivisions of Taiwan
• County-administered cities of Taiwan
• Populated places in Taiwan