'branch and lump') system, also known as tiaotiao-kuaikuai (Chinese: 条条块块; pinyin: tiáotiáo-kuàikuài) to emphasize the plurality, describes the quasi-federal arrangement of administration in the People's Republic of China.
Writes Lieberthal, "One key rule of the Chinese system is that units of the same rank cannot issue binding orders to each other.
This two-dimensional arrangement sometimes creates undesirable conflicts, and there have been calls for tiao-kuai integration (Chinese: 条块结合; pinyin: tiáo-kuài jiéhé), although this is unlikely to occur due to resistance from the provinces.
While China experimented with centralization and decentralization policies for a few years, the Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957 solidified the principle of ideological unity among all local governments.
[2] On the other hand, the rapid rise in the number of prefecture-level cities as a result of urbanization has checked the power of the provinces.