Dr. Shiuh-Shen CHIEN, Department of Geography, National Taiwan University

1. Political Economy of Administrative Restructuring under Globalization- A Case of Prefecture-level Units in China Dr. Shiuh-Shen CHIEN, Department of Geography, National Taiwan University Presented in Monthly Seminar of Globalization Studies, NTU, 4th May 2009

2. Structure of Presentation • Introduction • History prior to 1978 • Development under post-Mao • Operations and Effectiveness of the Prefecture-level city • Administrative Restructuring Prefecture-level cities • Conclusion

3. Preface-1 • This presentation is based on a book chapter contributed to ‘China’s Local Administration (forthcoming), Routledge: London, • The book project , organized by the Asian Network of Studying Local China (ANSLOC), an informal academic network initiated by Professor Jae Ho Chung, dean of Institute of International Relations at National Seoul University, is the first book in English offering a comprehensive survey of China’s local administration, from the province down to the township.

4. Preface-2

5. Quiz before Introduction • ‘City’ is the most problematic term of understanding Chinese local administrations (not only in China but also in Taiwan). - Take Shanghai city, Suzhou city, and Kunshan city as examples. Are these cities at the same rank? - In Taiwan, there are Taipei city (centrally-administrated city), Xinchu city (prefecture-level city, or province-led city) and Pingdong city (county-level city)?

6. Introduction-1 • prefecture level (diji, 地級), is the second level of subnational authority, below the provincial level and above the county level. • The prefecture level consists of four types of administrative units, with 333 units in total • prefectures (diqu, 地區)- 17 in total (as of 2008) • autonomous prefectures (zizhizhou, 自治州), 30 • Leagues (meng, 盟), 3 • Prefecture-level cities (dijishi, 地級市), 283

7. Introduction-2 • Prefectures are administrated by prefecture administrative offices (PAO, diquxingzhenghongshu, 地區行政公署), which are filed agencies (peichujigou, 派出機構) of provincial-level administrations (like provinces and autonomous regions), • PAO is not subject to local political check and balance by the local People’s Congress. The budget of PAO is allocated by their respective provincial-level governments.

8. Introduction-3 • Autonomous prefectures (AP) and leagues are likely in areas which are historically were populated by ethnic minorities. AP and leagues are local People’s Governments and People’s Congress. • Prefecture-level cities, the most popular administrative type of the prefecture-level administration (283 of 333), are governed by local People’s Government, which are subject to their parallel local People’s Congress.

9. Introduction-4Prefecture-level units in China (by 2006)

10. Introduction-5 • The Constitution of the PRC, the article 30, does provide the establishment for autonomous prefectures as well as mention the term ‘larger city’ and ‘city with urban districts’, without specific term of prefecture-level cities, and says nothing to terms of prefectures and leagues. • Those three types have existed since 1949 for administrative necessity- average each province have 73 county-level unites, some with more than 100 unites. Without the prefecture-level units as intermediates, good management is impossible.

11. History prior to 1979 • The term ‘prefecture’ appeared first time at the beginning of the 20th century, but the concept of the prefecture should be regarded as the intermediate administration between the provincial and county levels(tongxianzhengqu, 統縣政區). • In the dynastic China’s history, only about 900 years (42%) witnessed two-tier structure (or three tier with one having no real power). It means the prefecture level have been existed more than 2000 years before 1949.

12. Local Gov’t Structure before 1949

13. Prefecture-level in ROC • The ‘city’ system was only legally formalized until the establishment of ROC, although the origin of the city can be traced back the Shang dynasty. • In 1928, the Law of City Government Organization was announced, the first law to regulate cities in China,with two kinds of city concepts- one is centrally administrated cities (zhixiashi直轄市, like Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai and so on) and the other is ordinary cities under administration of the provinces ( similar to province-administrated cities, shengxiashi省轄市, Hankuo, Wuxi, Xuzhou, Lanzhou and alike)

14. Prefecture-level under Mao • The prefecture-level system was created since 1949, with many names, special prefectures (zhuanqu專區), administrative prefectures (xingzhengqu行政區), province-administered city (prefecture-level cities, dijishi地級市), and so on. • From 1949-78, numbers of cities only grew from 55 to 97, reflecting the effectiveness of then China’s efforts to limit urban growth • the system of city-leading-county (C-L-C) received legal recognition in 1959, the numbers of CLC increased and decreased,in 1960 48 cities controlling 243 counties -> in 1965 24 cities governing 78 counties

15. Prefecture-level after 1978-1

16. Fever for Prefecture-level Cities • Under Mao, city was the necessary evil- centers for industrialization also breeding grounds for capitalist wrongdoings. • Under Deng, the idea of turning prefecture into prefecture-level cites involves two forces- support from the top (who see cities as growth poles) and from the below (who seek for city privileges and citizenship).

17. Implementing prefecture-level Cities • Merger of prefecture with city (dishihebing, 地市合併, merging pre-existing prefecture-level city with a pre-existing prefecture) • Cut half to set up a city (jiehuai she shi, 切塊設市, eliminating a prefecture and fill the void by promotion of a pre-existing county-level city to the rank of prefecture-level city) • Upgrade a county-level city under a pre-existing prefecture-level city • Other solutions (dividing a prefecture into two prefecture-level cities, merge ring prefecture to form a prefecture-level city)

18. Variety of Prefecture-level Cities • Variety of area, the biggest is Hulunbuir (in Inner Mongolia, 260,000 km2), 260 times than the smallest one, Tonglin of Zhejiang • Variety of Population, Boading of Hebei is over 10 million by 2006, while the least populated is Jiayuguan of Gansu, with less than 150,000 people • Variety of economic scale, Suzhou is the economically strong prefecture-level city by 2006, better than Tianjin; while Lingwu of Ningxia was less than 1% of Suzhou • Variety of economic structure, some of still operate on a rural-economy basis, like Yunfu of Guangdong, 33% of GDP was primary industry.

19. City and County Relation-1 • Three types of the relationship between prefecture-level city and its subordinates: • Prefecture-level city leading county (shi guan xian, 市管縣) • Prefecture-level city leading county-level district(shi guan qu市管區) • Prefecture-level city leading county-level city (shi guan shi,市管市) • All but four prefecture-level cities have one or more county-level districts (shiqu, 市區)as subordinates, showing political and economic importance of shiquto the prefecture-level administration

20. City and County Relation-2 • Average number of county-level units under prefect-level cities increased, from 3.0 (50 prefecture-level cities governing 171 county-level units ) to 5.0 (273 cities governing 1265) • Uneven distribution of city-leading-city- national average is 1.1; more city-leading-city happened in coastal provinces (suzhou have 5, for example) , while zero cases in Xingjian, Qinghai and Hainan, and Tibet.

21. Operations and Effectiveness-1 • In theory, higher tiers of governments have four powers - (1) administrative orders, (2) mandatory plans, (3) allocations of financial and other resources, and (4) personnel appointments and removal. • However, in reality, there is independence between the centre, provinces, cities, and counties for following reasons- (1) overlapping powers and authorities between governments at different scales, (2) implementation of any policies needs to be conducted by basic governments; (3) constitutional ambiguity offers certain political spaces for

22. OE-2: Division between local Gov’t • General division of laboure: Most local planning and management services are provided by the prefecture-level and county-level governments, and the central and provincial governments are mainly in charge of policy making, standards setting, oversight of policy implementation, • What local governments do: land use planning, energy distribution, port and harbours, inter-city roads and bridges and alike • What county-level can do: construction of primary schools, street cleaning services, solid waste collection; What County-level CANNOT do: land-leasing, construction of airports, tertiary educationm grants allocation, establishment of local radios and television facilities,

23. OE3- Streamlining or Wastefulness • Organization streamlining and bureaucratic wastefulness are both consequences of city-leading-county system, varying case by case - merging the three (prefecture, county-level city, and county) to one reduced the bureaucratic redundancy. - however, in a case where a pre-existing prefecture to be divided into two prefecture-level cities, the numbers of governmental organizations and public personnel are to be double.

24. OE-4: Territorial Competition • Negative consequences of competition between city proper (county-level districts) and its subordinate county-level units, “city extorting county” (shiguaxian, 市括縣), “city squeezing county” (shijixian市擠縣), and alike. • Positive Consequences of competition to race to the top- a story of Kunshan and CSSIP for (1) competition for infrastructure to be nine accesses and one leveling (jiutongyiping,九通一平); and (2) cross-regional cadre transfer to diffuse Kunshan’s experience to CSSIP.

25. Administrative Re-restructuring

26. Downgrading for province-lead-city • Expanding the power of economically strong counties (qianxiankuoquan) • The first try was held in Zhejiang, including fiscal and economic decentralization , with bypassing prefecture-level administrations • Yiwu of Zhejiang even owns visa management as well as power to restructure political organizations • A idea of ‘province-leading county’ is proposed in 2005 • Good outcome- more than 30 economically strong county-level units in Zhejiang • Negative outcome of backlash by prefectures (1) ceasing co-finance projects; (2) arbitrarily demoting counties to be county-level districts

27. Downgrading to be County-level • THE Case of Dongchuan of Yunnan • Dongchuan was China’s least populated prefecture-level city in 1998; later Dongchuan was downgraded to be a district of Kuanming • Many compromises have to be made during the downgrading process- particularly for personnel management.

28. Upgrading by Adm. Annexation • Annexation of nearby counties or county-level cities by a prefecture-level city - many cases, like Suzhou annexing Wu county, among others. - certain objections and demonstration from below during the process- some are political reasons, and some are identity reasons

29. Upgrading to be Centrally-Ad. City • Ongoing discussion on the selection for fifth/ sixth centrally-administrated city - the idea proposed by many urban researchers and geographers, with a concept of competitiveness of so-called global city - potential candidates include: Shenzhen and Guangzhou of Guangdong, Nanjing of Jiangsu, Dalian of Liaoning, Wuhan of Hubei, Xian of Shaanxi, Suzhou and Xuzhou of Jiangsu, and Ruoyang of Henan. None of them is confirmed yet.

30. Conclusion-1 • The prefecture level, as a local administrative system between the province and the county, has existed off and on for in China until 1949. • In Mao time, local administration was dominated by prefectures. • Since 1978, China has adopted the policy of “city-leading-county” by restructuring most of the former prefectures as prefecture-level cities. • Many of these prefecture-level cities have made great contributions to local and regional development, but some have generated controversy and hampered coordination of regional development.

31. Conclusion-2 • In response to these problems, four strategies for reform of the city-leading-county system have emerged: • granting increased administrative powers to economically strong countries (ultimately leading toward a “province-leading-county” system), • demoting prefecture-level cities to county-level districts, • expanding prefecture-level cities by annexation of nearby counties and county-level cities, and • promoting prefecture-level cities to the rank of centrally-administrated cities.

32. Conclusion-3 • Theoretical Implication for understanding spatial development in relation to administrative restructuring : (1) administrative level; (2) development category; (3) physical size • Further research suggestion: complicated relationship between prefecture-level cities on behalf of the city proper (county-level districts) and its subordinates .

33. Coda-1: Project Schedule • May 2007, the book project was initiated in the second meeting of ANSLOC in Singapore, later I met one editor in another occasion and was invited on the board. • May 2008, the chapter review workshop was held in the third meeting of ANSLOC in Hong Kong- each paper was directly under the peer review without any oral presentation. • October 2008, each revised paper was resubmitted; • May 2009 the fourth ANSLOC meeting is to be organized in Taipei (NTU and NCCU); October 2009, the book is to be published.

34. Coda-2: Contributors

35. THANK YOUDr. Shiuh-Shen CHIEN, NTU Political Economy of Administrative Restructuring under Globalization- A Case of Prefecture-level Cities in China Presented in Monthly Seminar on Globalization, NTU, May 2009