Legal Status
The constitution of the People's Republic of China does not endorse any prefectural level division, except for autonomous prefectures. Prefectures and leagues are not at all mentioned; provinces are explicitly stated to be divided directly into counties.
The constitution does not explicitly endorse the existence of prefecture-level cities; but it does mention that "comparatively large cities" (较大的市) are divided into counties and districts. However, there are only 49 prefectural level cities that have been designated as "comparatively large". As a result, the vast majority of prefecture-level cities do not have the constitutional basis for governing districts and counties.
The wholesale conversion of prefectures into prefectural level cities has resulted in the phenomenon of "cities containing cities" — prefectural level cities containing county level cities. There is no legal basis for this, not even for the 49 "comparatively large cities". Thus, the county-level cities technically do not "belong" to the prefecture-level city, but are instead "governed on behalf" of the province by the prefectural level city, though in practice the county level cities do indeed belong to their governing prefectural level cities.
Read more about this topic: Prefectures Of The People's Republic Of China
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