Special municipality (Taiwan)

A special municipality[upper-roman 1] is an administrative division unit in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Under the administrative structure of the ROC, it is the highest rank of division 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 there are six special municipalities in Taiwan: Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei and Taoyuan.[1]

Special Municipality[upper-roman 1]
Special municipalities are shown in pink
CategorySpecial municipalities, counties, and cities
LocationTaiwan
Number6 (as of 2019)
Populations1,881,204–4,014,560
Areas272–2,952
Government
  • City government
  • City council
SubdivisionsDistrict
This article is part of a series on
Administrative divisions
of Taiwan
Centrally-governed
Township-level
Village-level
Neighborhood-level
  • Neighborhoods
Historical divisions of
Taiwan (1895–1945)
Republic of China (1912–49)

History
See also: Political divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945) and Direct-administered municipalities of China

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 (特別市; tèbiéshì), but were later renamed Yuan-controlled municipalities (院辖市; 院轄市; yuànxiáshì).

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 Communist Party of China 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 (Chinese: 院轄市; pinyin: yuànxiáshì) 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 (地方制度法) 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 (準直轄市). 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

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.

MunicipalityMetropolitan areaRegion
KaohsiungKaohsiung metropolitan areaSouthern Taiwan
New TaipeiTaipei–Keelung metropolitan areaNorthern Taiwan
TaichungTaichung–Changhua metropolitan areaCentral Taiwan
TainanTainan metropolitan areaSouthern Taiwan
TaipeiTaipei–Keelung metropolitan areaNorthern Taiwan
TaoyuanTaoyuan–Zhongli metropolitan areaNorthern Taiwan

Current Special Municipalities
See also: List of administrative divisions of Taiwan and List of heads of governments of special municipalities, counties and provincial cities in Taiwan

There are currently six special municipalities:

Name PopulationArea (km²)City seatDate of establishment
 Kaohsiung City[upper-roman 2] 2,779,7902,946.2527Lingya District[upper-roman 3], Fengshan District[upper-roman 4]1979-07-01
 New Taipei City[upper-roman 5] 3,955,7772,052.5667Banqiao District[upper-roman 6]2010-12-25
 Taichung[upper-roman 7] 2,702,9202,214.8968Xitun District[upper-roman 8], Fengyuan District[upper-roman 9]2010-12-25
 Tainan[upper-roman 10] 1,883,2512,191.6531Anping District[upper-roman 11], Xinying District[upper-roman 12]2010-12-25
 Taipei[upper-roman 13] 2,688,140271.7997Xinyi District[upper-roman 14]1967-07-01
 Taoyuan[upper-roman 15] 2,092,9771,220.9540Taoyuan District[upper-roman 16]2014-12-25

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

NameExecutiveLegislature
GovernmentMayorCurrent MayorCity CouncilNo. of seats
KaohsiungKaohsiung City GovernmentMayor of Kaohsiung[[]]Kaohsiung City Council66
New TaipeiNew Taipei City GovernmentMayor of New TaipeiHou You-yiNew Taipei City Council66
TaichungTaichung City GovernmentMayor of TaichungLu Shiow-yenTaichung City Council63
TainanTainan City GovernmentMayor of TainanHuang Wei-cherTainan City Council57
TaipeiTaipei City GovernmentMayor of TaipeiKo Wen-jeTaipei City Council63
TaoyuanTaoyuan City GovernmentMayor of TaoyuanCheng Wen-tsanTaoyuan City Council60

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.

See also
Overview of administrative divisions of Taiwan
Republic of China
Free area[lower-roman 1] Mainland area
Special municipalities[G][lower-roman 2] Provinces[lower-roman 3] Not administered
Counties[G] Cities[G][lower-roman 4]
Districts[O] Mountain indigenous districts[G] Townships/cities[G][lower-roman 5] Districts[O]
Villages[O][lower-roman 6]
Neighborhoods
Notes
[G] Has an administrative body with an elected leader and a legislative body with elected members
[O] Has a governmental office for managing local affairs and carrying out commissioned tasks by superior agency

Notes
  1. Also known as the Taiwan area or Tai–Min area (Chinese: 臺閩地區; lit.: 'Taiwan–Fujian area')
  2. In Chinese, special municipalities, cities, and county-administered cities have the word shi (Chinese: 市; lit.: 'city') in their official names
  3. Nominal; provincial governments have been abolished
  4. Cities are sometimes called provincial cities (Chinese: 省轄市) to distinguish them from the other two types of cities.
  5. In Chinese, there are two types of townships: xīang (Chinese: 鄉) and zhèng (Chinese: 鎮); there is little practical difference between the two
  6. In Chinese, villages of xīang townships are known as tsūn (Chinese: 村), those of other types are known as lǐ (Chinese: 里)

Words in native languages

References
  1. Atayal residents worried over Taoyuan's upgrade
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