The demarcation of first-level administrative units within a state is not a matter of mere quantity—whether there are many or few.
From the perspective of the fundamental logic governing the organizational forms of human society, the dynamic interplay—or struggle—between the central government (the State) and local governments (those entities controlling the first-level administrative units) is absolutely ineradicable. The contest for discursive power between them is a perpetual reality.
The fundamental essence of this rivalry lies in a competition regarding the capacity for "closed-loop" self-sufficiency across various organizational domains—specifically industrial, military, economic, and cultural spheres.
The central government's primary objective is to dismantle this closed-loop capacity, whereas the local governments' primary objective is to establish it.
If the central government permits local governments to acquire this capability, those local governments will inevitably move toward independence. This is not a matter of chance, but of inevitability. This outcome cannot be altered by any other so-called religious, political, or cultural factors.
This touches upon a very deep-seated, foundational political logic. I do not wish to elaborate further on this point, as doing so would have profound implications for numerous issues concerning national unity.