pao-chia
/ˌpaʊtʃɪˈɑː/(also bao-chia, baojia, pao chea)
noun
In China: a system of local government in which households are organized into groups, each group being responsible collectively for the actions of its members.
- Ten households constitute a jia and ten jia a bao. The system was set up by the Kuomintang government in the late 1920s in imitation of one instituted in imperial China. In the traditional systems there were other units as well; at each level a person was appointed to take responsibility for the unit..
Origin
1930s. From Chinese bǎojiǎ (Wade-Giles transcription pao chia) from bǎo unit of one hundred households + jiǎ unit of ten households.