An autonomous municipality, county-level city or city, previously provincial city, is a de jure second-level administrative division unit in the Republic of China (Taiwan).
The provincial cities were formerly under the jurisdiction of provinces, but the provinces were streamlined and effectively downsized to non-self-governing bodies in 1998, in 2018 all provincial governmental organs were formally abolished. Provincial cities along counties, are presently regarded as de facto principal subdivisions directed by the central government of the ROC.
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 reform into provincial cities. Their roman spellings are also changed to reflect the official language shift from Japanese to Mandarin Chinese, but characters remain the same. +Spelling changes of provincial cities in 1945CharacterJapanese(before 1945)Chinese(after 1945)CharacterJapanese(before 1945)Chinese(after 1945)TaihokuTaipeiKagiChiayiKīrunKeelungTainanTainanShinchikuHsinchuTakaoKaohsiungTaichūTaichungHeitōPingtungShōkaChanghua
The reform was based on the Laws on the City Formation () of the Republic of China. This law was passed in the early 20th century. The criteria for being a provincial city included being the provincial capital as well as having a population of over 200,000, or over 100,000 if the city had particular significance in politics, economics, and culture. The division reform in 1945 had some compromises between the Japanese and the Chinese systems, some of the cities with population under the criteria were still be established as provincial cities.
After the government of the Republic of China relocated to Taipei, Taiwan in 1949, the population criterion for provincial cities was raised to 500,000 in the Guidelines on the Implementation of Local Autonomy in the Counties and Cities of Taiwan Province (), which was passed in 1981. It was later raised again to 600,000. Since the streamline of provinces in 1998, provincial cities are all directly under the central government, and are simply referred to as cities.
The People's Republic of China (PRC), which claims Taiwan as its 23rd province, has all of its provincial cities classified as county-level city.
Date Addition Removal No. Description1945-10 Changhua, Chiayi, Hsinchu,Kaohsiung, Keelung, Pingtung, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei 9Reorganised from the prefecture-administered cities in the period under Japanese rule.1950-08-16 Chiayi 8 Downgraded to a county-administered city1951-12-01 Changhua, Hsinchu, Pingtung 5 Downgraded to county-administered cities1967-07-01 Taipei 4 Upgraded to a special municipality1979-07-01 Kaohsiung 3 Upgraded to a special municipality1982-07-01 Chiayi, Hsinchu 5 Upgraded from county-administered cities2010-12-25 Taichung, Tainan 3 Merge with Taichung County and Tainan County, and upgraded to special municipalitiesCurrent cities: Chiayi, Hsinchu, Keelung (3).
Current cities
Currently, the Local Government Act of the Ministry of the Interior applies for the creation of a city, in which a city needs to have a population between 500,000 and 1,250,000 and occupies major political, economical and cultural roles. Note that all three existing cities are not qualified for the population test, they were built for historical reasons.
There are currently three cities, all in Taiwan Province: NameChineseHànyǔPīnyīnWade–GilesTongyòngPinyinHokkienPe̍h-ōe-jīHakkaPha̍k-fa-sṳAreaCity SeatEstablishment ChiayiJiāyìChia¹-i⁴JiayìKa-gīKâ-ngi60.03 km2East District1982-07-01 HsinchuXīnzhúHsin¹-chu²SinjhúSin-tekSîn-chuk104.10 km2North District1982-07-01 KeelungJīlóngChi¹-lung²JilóngKe-lângKî-lùng132.76 km2Zhongzheng District1945-10-25 Their self-governed bodies (executive and legislature) regulated by the Local Government Act are: NameExecutiveLegislatureGovernmentMayorCurrent MayorCity CouncilNo. of seatsChiayiChiayi City GovernmentMayor of ChiayiHuang Min-huiChiayi City Council24HsinchuHsinchu City GovernmentMayor of HsinchuAnn KaoHsinchu City Council33KeelungKeelung City GovernmentMayor of KeelungGeorge HsiehKeelung City Council32
See also Cities of Japan Political divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945) Prefecture-level city of China
Notes
Words in native languages
References