The remarkable changes in China over the past three decades are mostly considered at the national level, whereas local government – which has played and continues to play a key role in these developments – is often overlooked. The themes of China’s local administrative hierarchy, and its historical evolution, have until now received scant attention; this book fills that gap, and presents a comprehensive survey of China’s local administration, from the province down to the township. It examines the political and functional definitions and historical origins of the nine local administrative levels or categories in contemporary China: the province, the centrally-administered municipality, the ethnic minority autonomous region, the special administrative region, the deputy-provincial city, the prefecture, the county, township and urban district. It investigates how each of the different levels of China’s local administration has developed historically, both before and after 1949; and it explores the functions, political and economic, that the different levels and units carry out, and how their relationships with superior and subordinate units have evolved over time. It also discusses how far the post-Mao reforms have affected local administration, and how the local administrative hierarchy is likely to develop going forward.

Jae Ho Chung is Professor of International Relations and Director of the Institute for China Studies at Seoul National University, Korea. His recent publications include: Central Control and Local Discretion in China; Charting Chinas Future; and Cities in China: Recipes for Economic Development in the Reform Era (the latter also published by Routledge).

Tao-chiu Lam is Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Marketing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He currently administers the university's MBA program in Xian and Shenzhen. He has published on local government and public sector management in China.