Governance in the local and central relationship implies an organization of different levels and identifiable hierarchies. Non-central governments are hierarchically distributed under the State Council, the main governing body of China.

Levels of government under the state council

The first category in the administrative hierarchy of non-central governments – below the State Council – is called the provincial level. At this level, we can find the Provinces, the Municipalities, the Autonomous Regions, and the Special Administrative Regions. In this sense, there are 22 + 1 provinces (22 on the mainland and the other is Taiwan). Besides Municipalities, which are Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Tianjin. The four autonomous regions are Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Ningxia, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Finally, the Special Administrative Regions: Macao and Hong Kong.

Between the first and the second level, there is an intermediate level called the sub-provincial level in which we find cities that they do not meet the criteria of becoming a municipality. However, they are big enough to be treated hierarchically on a second level. For example, we find cities like Wuhan, Nanjing, or Shenzhen.

The third, fourth, and fifth levels are smaller and usually have a lower degree of autonomy.