The first municipalities of the ROC 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
Nanjing,
Shanghai,
Beiping (Beijing),
Tianjin,
Qingdao,
Chongqing,
Xi'an,
Canton,
Hankou District (now part of
Wuhan),
Shenyang, and
Harbin. These cities were first called
special municipalities/cities (), but were later renamed
Yuan-controlled municipalities (). Before the end of
World War II, the
island of Taiwan (Formosa) was under
Japanese rule, with 11 cities established within
its administrative divisions. Following the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Republic of China (ROC) took control of Taiwan, most of pre-1945 cities in Taiwan were reorganized as
provincial cities, but
Yilan and
Hualien became the first two
county-administered cities. After the loss of the mainland to the
Chinese Communist Party in 1949, all the special municipalities established in
mainland China were lost. The new communist-led
People's Republic of China government replaced the Yuan-controlled municipalities with
direct-controlled municipalities. The
Kuomintang-led
government of the Republic of China lost the
Chinese Civil War and relocated to
Taipei, Taiwan. By the time of its retreat, no special municipalities was established in Taiwan or other territories under effective control of the ROC 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 at the time the most populous city. The scope of the Taipei special municipality includes the original provincial City of Taipei 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 ==