Chinese federalism refers to political theories which argue that China's central government should share sovereignty with regional entities, under a form of federalism. Such proposals were made in the early twentieth century, in connection with the end of the Qing dynasty, as well as more recently, with a view to providing checks against the power of the central government and settling the relationship between Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and other potential political entities (including provinces of Mainland China).
Wu Bangguo, who used to be the official number two in China's leadership structure, said in 2011 that there would be no federal system in China: "There will be no separation of powers between the different branches of government and no federal system. It is possible that the state could sink into the abyss of internal disorder [if this happened]."
Republic-era proposals
The Revive China Society, founded in November 1894 by Sun Yat-sen, was among the first to suggest that a future Chinese government should be established on federal lines—a feeling expressed in the organization's oath, "Expel the northern barbarians, revive Zhōnghuá, and establish a unified (hézhòng) government". The term hézhòng, literally meaning "many unified as one", refers to a federal structure such as the United States of America.
During the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, fourteen provinces proclaimed independence from the Qing dynasty and reunited as the Republic of China. But when the Guizhou Provincial Consultative Council proclaimed independence, they asked to build the Great Han Federal Democratic Republic. Prior to January 1912, one semi-official translation of the country's new name used by revolutionary Shanghai Military Government was the United Provinces of China. Sun Yat-sen's title in 1912 was "President of the Provisional Government of the United Provinces of China". Chinese federalists from this period often used "United Provinces" instead of "Federation" or "United States" because "states" suggested a more independent arrangement than "provinces." In other words, they wished to avoid the impression that federalism implied separatism.
Proposals for a federal Chinese state were first advanced in the 1920s, but these proved unpopular. These often used the phrase United Autonomous Provinces as the name of the intended system. Hunan was the center of this movement. The young Mao Zedong even advocated the formation of a "Republic of Hunan" during that period. But many intellectuals, including Sun Yat-sen, argued that these proposals would limit the ability of China to fight off external invasion and would legitimize the rule of warlords. The young Mao Zedong wrote on the Ta Kung Pao proposing the idea of splitting the whole China into 27 countries. He wrote︰
Communist-era developments
After Chinese Communists established the Chinese Soviet Republic in Jiangxi, they aimed at a political system modeled after the union republics of the Soviet Union. According to their plans, China was to be a Soviet federal republic with several autonomous republics (such as Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet). During the period of the Long March they established a small autonomous republic for Tibetans in Sichuan. In Shaanxi, however, they changed their nationality policy, abandoning their plan to establish autonomous republics (as in the Soviet Union) in favor of autonomous regions. The first of these to be created was Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 1947.
When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, it was divided into six semi-independent greater administrative areas. The central government was transferred from the People's Government of North China and just controlled northern China and Inner Mongolia. Other greater administrative areas had more autonomy. This autonomy had ended completely by 1954.
More recently, some economists have argued that during the process of economic reform that the People's Republic has evolved into a de facto federal state in which provinces have wide discretion to implement policy goals which are set by the PRC central government and in which provinces and localities actively compete with each other in order to advance economically. According to a 2004 study conducted by Bo Zhiyue, Chair of the Department of International Studies at the St. John Fisher College, provincial authorities have greater institutional power than central institutions. Bo concluded that after the 16th Party Congress, due to personnel transfers between the provinces and the centre, the central authorities emerged more powerful, but was still shy of outpowering the provincial authorities on his power index score.