Special Municipality (Taiwan)

Special municipality, historically known as Yuan-controlled municipality is a first-level administrative division unit in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Under the administrative structure of Taiwan, it is the highest level of division in Taiwan and is equivalent to a province. Since the streamlining of provinces in 1998, the special municipalities along with provincial cities and counties have all been directly under the central government.

Currently total six cities are designated as special municipalities: Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung, all located in the most densely populated regions in the western half of the island. These special municipalities include the five most populous metropolitan areas in Taiwan, accounting for more than two-thirds of the national population.

History

The first municipalities of China were established in 1927 soon after they were designated as "cities" during the 1920s. Nominally, Dairen was a municipality as well, although it was under Japanese control. It consisted of the original 11 cities of Nanking, Shanghai, Peking (Peiping), Tientsin, Tsingtao, Chungking, Sian, Canton, Hankow (now part of Wuhan), Shenyang, and Harbin. These cities were first called ''special municipalities/cities'' (), but were later renamed '' Yuan-controlled municipalities'' ().

When the island of Taiwan (Formosa) was under Japanese rule, it consisted of 11 cities. Following the end of World War II, the Republic of China (ROC) reclaimed Taiwan and no special municipalities were established although they became provincial cities, but Yilan and Hualien became the first two county-administered cities.

After the fall of the mainland to the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China lost the Chinese Civil War and was relocated to Taipei, Taiwan. At this time all the special municipalities established in mainland China were lost. There were no special municipalities under the government's effective jurisdiction, in which the new authorities in the mainland replaced the Yuan-controlled municipalities with ''direct-controlled municipalities'' by the PRC Central Government.

In 1967, Taipei City, the first special municipality in Taiwan was created. Taipei served as the capital of the country starting in 1949 and was also the most populous city. Territory of the Taipei special municipality includes the original provincial Taipei City and 4 of its neighboring townships in Taipei County, including Neihu, Nangang, Muzha and Jingmei. In the next year, Shilin and Beitou of Yangmingshan Administrative Bureau (a county-equivalent administrative division) were also merged into Taipei.

In 1979, the major international port and industrial city in the southwest of the country — Kaohsiung — were also upgraded to a special municipality. Territory of the Kaohsiung special municipality includes the original provincial Kaohsiung City and Siaogang Township in Kaohsiung County.

At this time, Taiwan was under martial law. All national and municipal level elections were suspended. The mayors of Taipei and Kaohsiung were assigned by the Executive Yuan (central government), not by elections until 1994. For this reason the special municipalities were also called Yuan-controlled municipalities () at this period.

Following the democratic reforms in the early 1990s, more thoughts of administrative division reform and reorganization were widely discussed. The ''Local Government Act'' () was passed by the Legislative Yuan (the Parliament) in 1999. This ''Act'' regulates the local self-governance bodies and came with some articles to deal with the possible changes of administrative divisions. In the ''Act'' also states that cities with population of over 1,250,000 and with significance on political, economic and cultural development may form a special municipality.

The 2007 amendment of ''Local Government Act'' states that a county or city with population over two million may grant some extra privileges in local autonomy that was designed for special municipalities. This type of counties are often called quasi-municipalities (). Taipei County was the first division within this case. In 2009, another amendment of ''Local Government Act'' gave councils of counties and cities the right to file petitions to reform themselves into special municipalities. Four proposals were approved by the Executive Yuan in 2009
* Kaohsiung: merged from Kaohsiung Special Municipality and Kaohsiung County
* New Taipei: reformed from Taipei County
* Taichung: merged from Taichung Provincial City and Taichung County
* Tainan: merged from Tainan Provincial City and Tainan County
The four newly created special municipalities were formally established on December 25, 2010 with the inauguration of the new mayors.

In June 2010, the population of Taoyuan County also grew over 2 million and were qualified for being a quasi-municipality since 2011. The county government also sent a proposal to become a special municipality in 2012. Executive Yuan approved the proposal and the special municipality of Taoyuan were formally established on December 25, 2014.

Currently, there are in total six special municipalities under the central government. The special municipalities cover the top five most populous metropolitan areas in Taiwan and over two thirds (2/3) of the national population.

Current Special Municipalities

There are currently six special municipalities:

Their self-governed bodies (executive and legislature) regulated by the ''Local Government Act'' are:

In Taiwanese municipalities, the mayor is the highest-ranking official in charge. The mayor is directly elected by the people registered in the municipality for a duration of four years.

Future

In Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, it was proposed in September 2021 that both are to be upgraded to the nation's newest special municipality. Similarly, Changhua County and Changhua City have been expressed interest to become its special municipality that October. The Tsai Ing-wen administration had approved the proposal to merge Hsinchu county and city in December 2021 but rejected Changhua due to the county's decline of population below the 1.25 million required by Article 4 of the Local Government Act for a region to be eligible for an upgrade.

See also

* Political divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945)
* Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan
* Direct-administered municipalities of China
* Arrondissement, an equivalent type of urban district in some (mainly French-speaking) countries and territories

Notes

Words in native languages

References

{{Administrative divisions of Taiwan navbar

Subdivisions of Taiwan
Administrative divisions in Asia