Levels of Government

Province-In mainland China, provinces are theoretically subservient to the PRC central government, but in practice provincial officials have a large amount of discretion with regard to economic policy. Unlike the United States, the power of the central government was (with the exception of the military) not exercised through a parallel set of institutions until the early 1990s. The actual practical power of the provinces has created what some economists call federalism with Chinese characteristics.

Most of the provinces of China, with the exception of the provinces in the northeast, have boundaries which were established during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Sometimes provincial borders veer markedly away from cultural or geographical boundaries, a phenomenon described as "dog's teeth interlocking". This was an attempt by the imperial government to discourage separatism and warlordism through a divide and rule policy. Nevertheless, provinces have come to serve an important cultural role in China. People tend to be identified in terms of their native provinces, and each province has a stereotype that corresponds to their inhabitants.

• County-Counties (xians) are the most common county-level division. Counties have continuously existed since the Warring States Period, much earlier than any other level of government in China. In Sinologist literature, xian are often translated as "districts" or "prefectures". Wikipedia will try to maintain consistency and translate all of them as "counties".

County-level cities are, like prefecture-level cities, not "cities" in the traditional sense of the word, since they are actually large administrative regions that cover both urban and rural areas. It was popular for counties to become county-level cities in the 1990s, though this has since been halted. In Taiwan, county-level cities are known as provincial cities.

Township-In general, urban areas are divided into subdistricts ("street offices"), while rural areas are divided into towns , townships , and ethnic townships. Sumu and ethnic sumu are the same as townships and ethnic townships, but are unique to Inner Mongolia.

The Republic of China is different from mainland China in that it also has county-administered cities , which are cities at the township level. The People's Republic of China has no equivalent of this. Also, the urban townships and rural townships of the Republic of China are the same as towns and townships of the mainland; the difference is in the translation to English.

The Prefecture-The vast majority of prefecture-level divisions are prefecture-level cities. These are not really "cities" in the traditional sense of the word, since they are actually large administrative regions that cover both urban and rural areas. Most provinces are divided into only prefecture-level cities.

• The Village-In general, urban areas are organized into neighborhood committees , while rural areas are organized into village committees or villager groups. A "village" in this case can either be a natural village , or one that spontaneously and naturally exists, or an administrative village, which is a bureaucratic entity.