Everything about Autonomous Prefecture totally explained
In a similar fashion to the former
Soviet Union's
titular nations, a number of areas associated with one or more
ethnic minorities are designated as
autonomous within the
People's Republic of China (PRC). These areas are recognized in the
PRC's constitution and are nominally given a number of rights not accorded to other
administrative divisions. In reality, however, autonomous regions are "political eunuchs." This is because their authority rests with the Constitution and the Law on Regional Autonomy, requiring leaders to seek prior approval from the National People's Congress (NPC) to pass legislation. This isn't true for other provinces, which can pass legislation without such prior approval. For this reason, it has been contended that Autonomous regions are in fact "less autonomous."
The PRC's autonomous regions may be found in the first (or top) to third levels of its national
administrative divisions thus:
* June 2005
Although not named as autonomous areas, some third-level settlements and areas that are identified as
county-level cities and
county-level districts enjoy the same autonomy as autonomous areas. At the fourth ("township") level, 1
ethnic sumu and over 270
ethnic townships also exist, but are not considered to be autonomous and don't enjoy the laws pertaining to the larger ethnic autonomous areas.
As these autonomous areas were created by the PRC, they're not recognised by the
Republic of China on
Taiwan which ruled
Mainland China before the PRC's creation.
Nomenclature
The names of most of the PRC's autonomous areas are made from linking together:
- the name of a geographical area;
- the name or names of the predominant ethnic minority or minorities;
- the word "Autonomous";
- a type of administrative division.
For instance:
In the Chinese name of the administrative area, the nationality name is always suffixed with -族 ("nationality"), unless both of the following conditions apply: the division is found in Xinjiang (or is Xinjiang); the nationality name consists of more than one syllable. This distinction isn't reflected in translation into English.
Some autonomous areas have more than one specified minority, which tend to be listed in the name of the prefecture, creating rather long names. Two autonomous counties simply use "Various Nationalities" in their names as placeholders, rather than listing out all of their designated ethnicities:
A few autonomous areas break the regular nomenclature pattern, because the name of the nationality is already contained within the geographical name, or because there's no geographical name:
Legal basis
Autonomous regions, prefectures, counties, and banners are covered under Section 6 of Chapter 3 (Articles 111-122) of the
Constitution of the People's Republic of China, and with more detail under the
Law of the People's Republic of China on Regional National Autonomy (《中华人民共和国民族区域自治法》). The constitution states that the head of government of each autonomous areas must be of the ethnic group as specified by the autonomous area (
Tibetan,
Uyghur, etc). The constitution also guarantees a range of rights including: independence of finance, independence of economic planning, independence of arts, science and culture, organization of local police, and use of local language. In addition, the head of government of each
autonomous region is known as a "chairman", unlike
provinces, where they're known as "governors".
Demographics
Of the five autonomous regions, only
Tibet has an absolute majority (>50%) of the designated ethnic group, namely, the
Tibetans.
Xinjiang has a relative majority (<50%) of the designated ethnic group, the
Uyghurs, though this is disputed by Uyghur independence advocates, who claim that the Han Chinese population in Xinjiang has been severely understated. The remaining 3 autonomous regions have absolute majorities of
Han Chinese, the majority ethnicity of China.
History
Autonomous regions, prefectures, counties, and banners were established after communist takeover, following Soviet practice. At first, the nomenclature of these autonomous areas were somewhat confused, with autonomous regions appearing at the province, prefecture, county, and township levels. Eventually the nomenclature was standardized to the conventions used today.
The first autonomous region to be established was
Inner Mongolia, created within communist-held territory in
1947, two years before the establishment of the People's Republic.
Xinjiang was converted from a province to an autonomous region in
1955.
Guangxi and
Ningxia followed in
1957, and
Tibet Autonomous Region was formally established in
1965.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Autonomous Prefecture'.
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