Local Government Organization and Finance: China
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Procuratorial. The people’s procuratorates are state organs for legal supervision. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate, headed by the procuratorgeneral, is the country’s highest procuratorial organ. The government of China has a five-tier hierarchical structure, with the central government in Beijing, the capital, at the apex (figure 4.1). The second tier comprises jurisdictions that have provincial status. These jurisdictions consist of 22 provinces; 4 municipalities (Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Tianjin); 5 autonomous regions (Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Tibet, and Xinjiang); 2 special administrative regions (Macao and Hong Kong, China); and Taiwan, China. Provinces and autonomous regions are divided into autonomous prefectures, counties, autonomous counties, and cities. Counties and autonomous counties are divided into townships, nationality 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 (see article 30, Chinese constitution). Practically speaking, there are four tiers of local government: provincial-level government, headed by an elected governor and reporting to the State Council; prefecture-level government, the administrative division between province and county; county-level government, the basic administrative division; and township-level government, the basic administrative division in the vast countryside. Village-level
Central government 22 provinces (average pop: 55.6 million)
4 municipalities (average pop: 17.7 million)
5 autonomous regions (average pop: 19.7 million)
333 prefecture-level units (average population: 3.8 million)
2,861 county-level units (average population: 441,000) 44,067 township-level units (average population: 29,000) Source: Ministry of Finance of China.
F I G U R E 4 . 1 Structure of Government in China, 2003
