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A league (Mongolian: (ᠠᠶᠢᠮᠠᠭ) ayimaγ [æːmɑ̆ɡ̊] Aimag; historically, čiγulγan [t͡ʃʰʊːlɡ̊ɑ̆n] Qûûlgan; Chinese: 盟; pinyin: méng) is an administrative unit of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China.
Leagues are the prefectures of Inner Mongolia. The name comes from a kind of ancient Mongolian administrative unit used during the Qing Dynasty in Mongolia. Mongolian Banners (county level regions) were organized into conventional assemblies at the league level. During the ROC era, the leagues had a status equivalent to provinces. Leagues contain banners, equivalent to counties.
After the establishment of the provincial level Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 1947, leagues of Inner Mongolia became equal to prefectures in other provinces and autonomous regions. The governments of the league, (Chinese: 行政公署; pinyin: xíngzhènggōngshǔ), is the administrative branch office dispatched by People's Government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The leader of the league's government, titled as league leader (simplified Chinese: 盟长; traditional Chinese: 盟長; pinyin: méngzhǎng), is appointed by People's Government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. So are deputy leaders of leagues. Instead of local level of People's Congress, league's working commissions of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region are detached and supervise the league's governments, but can not elect or dismiss league's government officials. In such a way, the league's working committee of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is instead of league's committee of CPPCC.
Leagues have existed since the Qing Dynasty as a level of government. The head of a league was chosen from jasagh or sula of the banners belonging to it. The original six leagues were Jirem, Ju Ud, Jost, Xilingol, Ulanqab, and Ih Ju. More were added in the subsequent centuries.
Today, leagues belong to the prefecture level of the Chinese administrative hierarchy. Of the 9 leagues that existed in the late 1970s, 6 have now been reorganized into prefecture-level cities. There are only 3 leagues remaining in Inner Mongolia: Xilingol, Alxa, and Hinggan.