Hierarchy

Local Government Categories

Types and levels

 Most people associate China with the Great Wall and the massive number of outsourced jobs it currently holds, but the world's largest country also has one of the more established government system in the planet. Local governments, according to the Constitution and the related law, are divided into 3 main types: local governments at different levels, autonomous governments of nationality regions and governments of special administrative regions. In 1996 an administrative hierarchical structure was formulated. The structure is the same as that of the Communist Party at the national, sub-national and local levels. The levels of local government have undergone several changes since the foundation of the PRC. Generally, there were 6 levels from October 1949 to September 1954: large region, province, city, county (urban district), district and country (township). Since September 1954, the number of levels changed to 5 levels: province, city (prefectures, league and autonomous prefecture), county (autonomous county, banner and district under the jurisdiction of the city), district and village (people's commune, town and autonomous country). At present, the organizational system of local government is divided into 4 levels:

Provincial level
These include Provincial, Autonomous Region and Municipal Governments, which are the highest levels of local government. In 1996, China had 31 provincial-level administrative units, including 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and 3 cities;

City level
This category includes cities under the jurisdiction of the province, prefectures, autonomous prefectures as well as leagues and districts under the jurisdiction of the apex municipalities;
County level
This level includes country, autonomous county, county-level city, banner, autonomous banner, special zone, forest districts, industrial and agricultural districts, districts of the city under the jurisdiction of province, sub districts of the apex municipalities, etc.;

Village (town) level
These include county, autonomous village, town, sub district (excluding those of the municipality) and are the lowest levels of local government.

Autonomous government of nationality region
China is a multinational country. To carry out the autonomous system of nationality in each region is the nationality policy of China. In 1954, the Chinese Constitution divided the autonomous nationality regions into 3 levels: autonomous regions (provincial level), autonomous prefectures (prefecture and city level) and autonomous counties (county level) according to their administrative levels. By the end of 1992, mainland China had 5 autonomous regions, 30 autonomous prefectures and 124 autonomous counties (leagues).

Special administrative district
In 1982 the Chinese Constitution wrote that the state would set up special administrative districts whenever deemed necessary. On 1 July 1997, China resumed exercising sovereignty over Hong Kong and set up the special administrative district of Hong Kong. In 1999 Macao will return to China and a new special administrative district will be set up. The special administrative district is the product of the conception of one country, two systems, which means that mainland China carries out a socialist system and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan a capitalist system. But in the international affairs, the PRC is the only country representing China.

Local Government Functions

The main function of local government is managing the economy of the area under its jurisdiction. This includes:

· Drawing up socio-economic development strategies of the regions as well as middle and long-term plans for economic development, year plans, measures of developing resources, transforming technologies, importing technologies and capital;
· Solving important economic contradictions between branches and between branches and regions and mediating economic relations;
· Organizing and coordinating production and circulation;
· Enforcing economic laws and regulations;
· Appointing and dismissing cadres; and
· Providing infrastructure basic conditions and services for economic development.

After the reform of the economic system in 1978, local governments have increasingly participated in economic construction and played an important role in rural-based industry promoting economic development. The Pearl River Delta, an economic developed region in China, for example has seen a great socio-economic leap. Between 1980 and 1993, the rural enterprises in the delta increased from 30,850 to 403,898 and by 1993, the industrial output value by rural industries accounted for 39.49 per cent of the total industrial value. The rapid development of rural industries resulted to a large extent from the impetus of local governments. In 1980s, during the early period of the economic take-off in the Pearl River Delta, local governments and enterprises were combined into one. As of such, local governments directly intervened in the economy and played a leading role by providing a series of favorable conditions for enterprises. These included amongst others transferring governmental functions to help the development of rural industries, identifying projects for enterprises, resolving the problem of shortage of special personnel for enterprises, providing credit guarantees for the management of indebted enterprises, improving infrastructure, opening overseas markets, fostering backbone enterprises, establishing enterprise groups, and developing scale economies. Apart from managing the economy, local governments have the following functions:

· Culture and education;
· Urban and rural development and construction;
· Finance and taxation;
· Civil administration;
· Social security and public order;
· Medical and health affairs; and
· Other functions.

Organization of local government
Local governments consist of personnel and functional branches. Local government personnel include two types: administrative senior officers, vice senior officers and heads of various functional branches and working personnel. The composition of local governments at different levels is listed as follows:

Provincial government
At present most of the governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have about 45 organizations and 50 officers who are selected for a term of five years.

City government
Generally speaking, city government consists of 9 to 35 officers (45 at most) selected for a five-year term.

Rural (town) government
At this level, several organizations are designated each of which has one leader that can function in an acting capacity. The county and town governments generally spoken consist of 3 to 13 officers selected for a term of three years.

Formation of local governments
The corresponding People's Congress selects the senior officer and vice senior officers of local governments at different levels. As for local governments at the county or higher level, the Standing Committees of the corresponding People Congress decide, after the election of senior officers, on the appointment and dismissal of other posts based on the nomination of the provincial governor, the Chairman of the autonomous regions, the mayor and heads of autonomous prefectures, counties and districts and report to the next higher level government for record. In China, an indirect rather than direct election system is adopted to elect the local administrative officers. That is, the local voters elect the representatives to the People Congresses who have the right to elect the officers of local governments. The candidates for the function of senior officer and vice officers should be nominated by the presidium of the people's representatives or co-nominated by more than 10 representatives.

Authorities of local governments
The authorities of local governments refer to their rights to govern administrative affairs in their administrative divisions. The extension of these rights is directly proportional to the government level and function number. The Constitution of China stipulates the functions and powers of local governments at different levels in Han nationality areas are as follows. "Local governments at the county or higher level have the power to carry out resolutions and orders of the People Congresses at the corresponding and higher level of governments and of the State Council, can govern the economic, educational, scientific, cultural, health, sport and administrative affairs, like finance, civil administration, public security, nationality, judicature, supervision and family planning, exercise personnel appointment and dismiss training, examination, rewards and punishments. The provincial and municipality governments have the power to decide on the designation of the country and the nationality of the country and town. Local governments at country and town level have the power to carry out resolutions and orders made by the People Congress at the corresponding and higher level of governments and to govern administrative affairs. The autonomous authorities of governments of the autonomous areas, except for exercising the powers of the local governments at the same levels as mentioned above, can decide on local finance for themselves, govern the local educational, scientific, cultural, health and sport affairs for themselves and have the power to organize the public security army for safeguarding local social security and to use the local language in common use."

Structure relations of local governments
Local governments of China comprise a hierarchical system with a characteristic of leadership at different levels, the lower level being subordinate to higher level. The provincial governments lead the city governments. City governments lead county governments and county governments lead country governments. This means that lower-level governments must accept the leadership, instructions, supervision and examination of higher-level governments conscientiously and complete the tasks received from them. At the same time, local governments at different levels comprise the system of complete political power. They can exercise their functions and powers independently under the guidance of the higher-level government.

Central-Local Links

Organizational leadership and subordination
The supreme administrative organ is the State Council. The administrative organs of state in the locality are the local governments centrally led by and obeying to the State Council. The branches of local governments must carry out the laws and regulations of central government, complete the tasks given by it and accept its professional guidance.

Functional division and coordination
The functions of central and local governments are very similar in content. The difference between the local and central level is that the central government manages the administrative affairs of the country centrally and makes the macro decisions while the local governments mainly manage local administrations.

Centralization and decentralization of state powers
The relationship between the State Council and local governments follows a model of unified leadership and proper decentralization of powers. In particular those branches of government concerned with political and social stability, socio-economic issues of vital national concern, high technology, major infrastructure construction, key scientific and research institutes and universities are managed by the central government. As for finance, economy and trade, legislature, education, scientific technologies, health, culture, sports, employment, personnel and social welfare a graded management by both levels of government is practiced. For the important adjusting and control of powers of macro economy on banking, tax, price and the development power of resources, a joint method of division of authority is put into place. The branches like auditing, supervision, statistics could practice the system of dual leadership.

Unified financial leadership and graded management
The unified finance of the state is divided into two levels, central and local, in which the local level can be subdivided into three levels: province, county and country. For the cities that govern counties administratively, a fourth level, namely city-level, is added. In this hierarchical framework, central finance is in a leading position and local finance is the basic one.

Administrative interaction
Central government can exert its influence on local administrations in many aspects. The State Council, in terms of the administrative legislature, controls the local administrative procedures. The local governments must follow the laws and regulations by the central government. The State Council guides the local administrations in terms of policies, assigns tasks to local governments in terms of plans. In doing so, the central government confers on the local governments the necessary authorities. The State Council examines and approves the works of local governments through three graded ways - general supervision at the administratively subordinate relationship, special supervision of supervisory branches and economic supervision of auditing branches. Through these supervisions, the central government evaluates the local governments' practice to policies, laws and plans. Of course, local governments have counter-action to central government to some extent. In recent years, some local governments have exerted certain influences on the central government at the decision-making of finance, import, export, trade and so on.