The tiao-kuai () system, also known as tiaotiao-kuaikuai () to emphasize the plurality, describes the quasi-federal arrangement of administration in the People's Republic of China. The term tiáo refers to the vertical lines of authority over various sector reaching down from the ministries of the central government. Kuài refers to the horizontal level of authority of the territorial government at the provincial or local level. According to political scientist Kenneth Lieberthal, "The former coordinates according to function ([for] example, environment); the latter coordinates according to the needs of the locality that it governs." Thus a local environmental protection bureau may have reporting responsibilities to both the central government's State Environmental Protection Administration and to the mayor of the city in which it is located. Constitutionally, organizations in both the functional and territorial systems of governance are assigned to a system of ranks. Central ministries are at the same rank as provincial governments. Writes Lieberthal, "One key rule of the Chinese system is that units of the same rank cannot issue binding orders to each other. Operationally, this means that no ministry can issue a binding order to a province." This means a province may challenge, overrule, or ignore decisions made by a ministry. This two-dimensional arrangement sometimes creates undesirable conflicts, and there have been calls for tiao-kuai integration (), although this is unlikely to occur due to resistance from the provinces. Under Maoist rule In 1949, the Chinese Revolution established the People's Republic of China, a constitutionally socialist state. 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. During the Cultural Revolution, and especially the 1971-1975 "unified income and unified expenditure" () period, bureaucrats across China implemented similar agricultural and industrial policies modeled in Beijing. In the reform era With the death of Mao Zedong and the beginning of the Chinese economic reform, China adopted a policy of "emancipation of mind (from ideology)" () as the government sought practical solutions to economic problems that reflected local conditions. Provinces were given substantial economic and political authority, such as to authorize investment projects and raise their own taxes. The State Planning Commission's mandate shifted from giving annual targets to planning for the medium and long term. The central government further established special economic zones within the coastal provinces, which the relevant subnational governments have