History of the Council
Hsinchu, called “Zhuqian” in the old days, is where the Pinpu people used to live.Taiwan was incorporated into the territory of the Qing Dynasty in 1683 A.D. and Zhuqian was attributed to the jurisdiction of Chulo County and it was during that time that the first Han Chinese settlers arrived. In 1723, Zhuqian was reformed to be considered to be not in Chulo County but in Danshui District. In 1875, Danshui District was divided into Danshui and Hsinchu County. In 1895, Taiwan was ceded to Japan after the Sino-Japanese War, and Hsinchu was reformed to be within Taipei County as a Hsinchu Branch District. In 1901, Hsinchu and Taoyuan districts were combined to be Hsinchu State, governing eight counties and its administrative office was in Hsinchu County.
On January 19, 1886, Taiwan was officially incorporated into the Qing Dynasty as a province. On August 17, 1887, the first governor Liu, Ming-chuan recommended to the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty to establish Taipei, Taiwan and Tainan Prefectures, governing 11 counties that are Danshui, Hsinchu and Ilan (under Taipei Prefecture); Taiwan, Changhua, Yunlin and Miaoli (under Taiwan Prefecture); Anping, Fengshan, Hengchun and Chiayi (under Tainan Prefecture); and four districts that are Keelung, Nanya, Pulishe, Penghu; and Taitung District to be directly under provincial administration. There were nine more changes undertaken in the Japanese Occupation Period, and the final arrangement was to have five counties (Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung); and three districts (Taitung, Hualien and Penghu.)
Since Taiwan's retrocession in 1945, Taiwan's official government has been reformed to eight counties (Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Taitung, Hualien, and Penghu Counties); and nine cities (Taipei, Keelung, Hsinchu, Taichung, Changhua, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung Cities). Under the counties are districts, townships, villages and neighborhood units. In 1950, for the sake of implementing local autonomy, the administrative division was again readjusted, and Taiwan Province was reformed into 16 counties (Taipei, Ilan, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taichung, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien and Penghu Counties) and five cities (Keelung, Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung Cities.) In 1967 and 1979, Taipei and Kaohsiung Cities were raised from under provincial jurisdiction to directly controlled municipalities. On July 1st, 1982, Hsinchu County, Hsinchu City, Chiayi County and Chiayi City were raised to be under the provincial jurisdiction.
Hsinchu County (which used to be named Greater Hsinchu County), previously included present-day Hsinchu County, Hsinchu City, Taoyuan County and Miaoli County, and was established based on the governmental organizational regulation published on December 11, 1945. The county government was officially established at the former Hsinchu State Office (present-day Hsinchu City Government) on January 1946. After Hsinchu City officially reformed to be a directly controlled municipality, the city office was moved to the former state office (present-day Hsinchu City Hall) and on February 28, 1946, the Hsinchu County government was relocated to Taoyuan (former Hsinchu Taoyuan District).
After Hsinchu County was established, based on the announcement dated August 9, 1941 on the temporary regulations for organizing county councils, township representatives were deemed as voters. There were 39 county senators elected on March 17, 1946, among which 38 were district representatives, with one senator representing the professional group, which formed the Hsinchu County Council. On April 14, 1946, the County Council was established in Taoyuan, borrowing Wudedian Hall as the office venue, that was the predecessor of our council, the Chairman was Huang, Yunjin and the Vice Chairman was Zhu, Shengqi.
County Senator tenure, according to the temporary regulations for organizing county councils, was two years. The constitution was published after the term was up, and so the central government ordered to extend the term to the council officially established. Thus, the predecessor of our council, Hsinchu County Council, was dissolved after the first council election was completed on January 23, 1951.
Local autonomy is the foundation of democracy; it is also the basic work for implementation of constitutional democracy. In accordance with the Constitution, the procedure to implement local autonomy is that first the central government should set up a set of general regulations regarding provincial and county autonomy. Then the provincial administration will call forth meetings for provincial representatives to establish the Provincial Autonomy Act based on the general regulations of provincial and county autonomy. Then the county representatives will be called for making the County Autonomy Act based on the general regulations of provincial and county autonomy, hence the implementation of local autonomy. Due to the Communist Rebellion when the Constitution was launched, the general regulations for provincial and county autonomy failed to be developed timely based on each province's situation. As a result, the Provincial and County Autonomy Acts could not be made to implement provincial and county autonomy.
In January of 1949, the Taiwan Province Council held its first session of the sixth meeting, presenting “a timely and temporary measure for provincial, county and township autonomy act before the general regulations of local autonomy was made”, which was sent to the provincial government by the meeting's final decision for implementation. At that time, the central government just retreated to Taiwan, and although the overall situation of the country was still precarious, former president Chiang Kai-shek, with his determination and witty vision, decided to start implementing autonomy in Taiwan based on the principle of regional scheduling with different time phases.
The Taiwan Provincial Government followed the central government's order, embedded on the opinion of the general public, started organizing preparatory work for local autonomy in January 1949. “Organizational Regulation for Taiwan Province Autonomy Research Group”was instituted for brainstorming, further presented to the committee of the Provincial Government on January 21, 1949, Meeting No. 83, and final approval was granted. More preparatory work was undertaken based on this regulation.
On April 14, 1950, the Executive Yuan order Tai. 39 (Nei) No. 1387, approved all counties and cities in the province to implement autonomy. On April 24, 1950, the Taiwan Provincial Government officially publicized the 39 Maoyangfuzongfa No. 27506, announcing the implementation of local autonomy outline for all counties and cities. On October 25, the administrative division in the province was adjusted, from the previous eight counties and nine directly controlled municipalities to 21 counties and cities. The directly controlled Hsinchu Municipality that was established during the beginning of retrocession was then resolved. Guanxi and Hsinpu, which were previously under Hsinchu County, and seven other counties, that are Hukou, Xinfeng (formerly Hungmao,) Zhubei, Hengshan, Xionglin, Beipu, and Emei; plus two counties where the main population was indigenous people that are Jianshi and Wufeng, were merged into Hsinchu County, and its governing office was located in Hsinchu City.
After provincial administrative reform, the first election for county and city representatives was held. Following the Executive Yuan's order direction of regional schedule with different time phases, the election of all 21 counties and cities in the entire province was divided into six phases. Our county was in the fourth phase, same with Taoyuan and Miaoli Counties, and the first group of members for the County Council was elected on January 7, 1951.
Due to the need for the first round of the County Council elections, the county held the first population survey on November 11-25, 1950, while the total population of the county was 349,618. The election was held on January 7, 1951, resulting in 37 council members, among which three were female, and they were all sworn in on January 23.
The first members of the public voted council were officially sworn in on January 23, 1951, and formed the first term of the council, since the venue of the council was not yet to be decided, hence it was borrowed from Hsinchu County Government (Present-day Hsinchu City Hall) East Room to be its office premises. In December 1952, the location of Qinren in Hsinchu City, sized 1983 square meters, was found and determined as the place to build the council office. The initial foundation was laid on December 12, 1952, and the construction began in February of the next year, finished on August 3, 1953. And, on September 1 that same year, the Chairman of Taiwan Provincial Goverment, Yu, Hung-Chun came and attended the opening ceremony of Hsinchu County Council, which was formally established at the present site of Hsinchu City Council, No. 122, Chung Cheng Road, Hsinchu City.
On July 1, 1982, Hsinchu City and Xianshan Township that were previously under the county's jurisdiction promoted to be a city directly controlled by the province. Hsinchu County was relocated to Zhubei upon the Executive Yuan's approval, and Zhubei County was reformed to be under the county's jurisdiction on October 31, 1988. After the county office's decision to relocate to Zhubei was finalized, the county government collected various land parcels at Doulun area to build the county government office and council venue. On February 14, 1987, the construction of a council venue was initiated at No. 8 Guangming Six Road, which started operating since May 8 while the construction was completed on November 7, 1989, and the long process of relocating the county office was finally finished after eight years.