Everything about The President Of The Republic Of China totally explained
The
President of the Republic of China is the
head of state of the
Republic of China (ROC). The Republic of China government has since 1949 maintained control of
Taiwan,
Penghu,
Kinmen,
Matsu and other islands after the rest of China was lost to the
Chinese Communists as a consequence of the
Chinese Civil War. The existing office was created in 1948 under the
1947 Constitution of the Republic of China.
Outside of Taiwan, the President of the Republic of China is commonly referred to as the "President of Taiwan" . Taiwanese media often use the term "president" on its own to refer to either the incumbent or the office. In official contexts, the full title "President of the Republic of China" is used. For most of its history
People's Republic of China, which doesn't recognize the existence of the Republic of China used quotation marks around terms such as "President" and "government" to imply non-recognition, a practice that was reciprocated by the ROC until the late 1980's. Since the mid-1990's, the standard term used by the PRC press has been to refer to ROC government as the "Taiwan authority" and the ROC President as the "leader of the
Taiwan Area", in which, both terms are not used in conjunction with quotation marks.
History
When the Republic of China was founded in 1912,
Sun Yat-sen was elected as the first "provisional
president" (臨時大總統) by the provisional Senate, ending thousands of years of imperial rule in China. Sun Yat-sen soon resigned from the office in favor of
Yuan Shikai, who formally assumed the office of "President" (大總統, literally "Great President", in contrast with the omission of 'great' in the current title) in 1913. The 1913 Constitution called for a strong
presidential system with notable
checks on the president by the
National Assembly. However, Yuan soon began to assert presidential power, ignoring the National Assembly and later abolishing it altogether. In 1915, Yuan proclaimed himself Emperor of China in a largely unpopular move and was forced to retract his declaration shortly before his death in 1916. With Yuan Shikai's death, China fragmented into
warlordism. Vice President
Li Yuanhong succeeded Yuan as president and attempted to reassert the constitutional government, but was soon forced to resign by military strongmen. The presidency, though leading an internationally recognized government, was thereafter to be headed by a series of prominent warlords. This presidency ended in 1928 when the
Northern Expedition, led by the
Kuomintang (KMT), succeeded in conquering North China.
Sun Yat-sen established a rival (military, not constitutional) government in
Guangzhou in 1917 and took the title of "Generalissimo of the Military Government" (海陸軍大元帥, literally "grand marshal of the navy and army"). He was ousted in 1918 but returned again to Guangzhou in 1921. Claiming to restore the
Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China, he summoned the members of the original parliament to elect him as president, but since there lacked a quorum, he took the title of "Extraordinary President" (非常大總統). Sun, again expelled from Guangzhou in 1922, returned in 1923 to take the title of "Generalissimo of the Military Government." Sun died in 1925 with no clear successor and leadership of the government, now named the
Nationalist Government, rested in a series of
Leninist-style dual party and state committees, the most powerful of which was the policy-making
Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. The government was organized into five branches, with the
Executive Yuan, headed by the
premier, holding primary administrative authority. The "Chairman of the Nationalist Government," though not given specific presidential powers, took on the functions of a
de facto head of state and its official English translation was "President of the National Government of the Republic of China". This form of government under the KMT lasted through the Northern Expedition, which moved the capital to Nanjing and gave the Nationalist Government domestic control and foreign recognition, and the
Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Japanese established puppet Nationalist Governments with almost the identical organizational structure, until the promulgation of a new Constitution in 1947.
Following the Chinese victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Nationalist Government under
Chiang Kai-shek was restored in Nanjing and the KMT set out to enact a
liberal democratic Constitution in line with the last stage of Sun Yat-sen's three stages of national development. The new
Constitution of the Republic of China, promulgated on
December 25,
1947, established a five-branch government with the office of president (總統) as head of state. On
May 20,
1948, Chiang Kai-shek was formally elected by the
National Assembly to be the first term president.
After the KMT lost the Mainland in the Chinese Civil War, the government was evacuated to Taiwan, where the term limits for the President specified in the 1947 constitution were suspended. In 1954, as the term of the first National Assembly were about to expire, the Judicial Yuan ruled that the National Assembly would continue in power until all-China elections could be held. This froze the membership of the National Assembly to representatives elected from the Mainland and prevented local Taiwanese from legislative participation until the early 1970's. The members of the National Assembly continued in their office until 1991, and continued to elect Chiang Kai-Shek as president until his death in 1975. Presidents were elected by the National Assembly until the first Presidential election in 1996.
Powers
The president is currently selected by a
plurality voting direct election of the areas administered by the Republic of China for a term of four years. Before 1991, the president was selected by the
National Assembly of the Republic of China for a term of six years.
The Constitution names the president as head of state and
commander-in-chief of the
military of the Republic of China. The president is responsible for conducting foreign relations, such as concluding treaties, declaring war, and making peace. The president must promulgate all laws and has no right to veto. Other powers of the president include granting amnesty, pardon or clemency, declaring martial law, and conferring honors and decorations.
The President can appoint
Senior Advisors and
National Policy Advisors, but they don't form a
council.
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The Constitution doesn't clearly define whether the president is more powerful than the
premier, as it names the
Executive Yuan (headed by the premier) as the "highest administrative authority" with oversight over domestic matters while giving the president powers as commander-in-chief of the military and authority over foreign affairs. Prior to his election as president in 1948, Chiang Kai-shek had insisted that he be premier under the new Constitution, while allowing the president (to which Chiang nominated
Hu Shih) be a mere figurehead. However, the National Assembly overwhelmingly supported Chiang as president and once in this position, Chiang continued to exercise vast prerogatives as leader and the premiership served to execute policy, not make it. Thus, until the 1980s power in the Republic of China was personalized rather than institutionalized which meant that the power of the president depended largely on who occupied the office. For example, during the tenure of
Yen Chia-kan, the office was largely ceremonial with real power in the hands of the
Premier of the Republic of China,
Chiang Ching-Kuo, and power switched back to the presidency when Chiang became president. After President
Lee Teng-hui succeeded Chiang as president in 1988, the power struggle within the KMT extended to the constitutional debate over the relationship between the president and the premier. The first three premiers under Lee,
Yu Kuo-hwa,
Lee Huan, and
Hau Pei-tsun were
mainlanders who had initially opposed Lee's ascension to power. The appointment of Lee and Hau were compromises by President Lee to placate conservatives in the KMT. The subsequent appointment of the first native Taiwanese premier
Lien Chan was taken as a sign of Lee's consolidation of power. Moreover, during this time, the power of the premier to approve the president's appointments and the power of the Legislative Yuan to confirm the president's choice of premier was removed establishing the president as the more powerful position of the two.
After the 2000 election of
Chen Shui-bian as president, the presidency and the
Legislative Yuan were controlled by different parties which brought forth a number of latent constitutional issues such as the role of the legislature in appointing and dismissing a premier, the right of the president to call a special session of the legislature, and who has the power to call a referendum. Most of these issues have been resolved through inter-party negotiations.
Diplomatic protocol
The diplomatic
protocol regarding the President of the ROC is rather complex because of the anomalous
political status of Taiwan. In the two dozen or so nations which recognize the ROC as a legitimate government, he's accorded the
standard treatment that's given to a
head of state. In other nations, he
is formally a private citizen, although even in these cases, travel usually meets
with strong objections from the
People's Republic of China.
The President of ROC has traveled several times to the
United States, formally in transit to and from
Central America, where a number of countries do recognize the ROC. This system allows the President to visit the United States without the U.S. State Department having to issue a visa. During these trips, the President isn't formally treated as a head of state, doesn't meet U.S. government officials in their official capacities, and doesn't visit
Washington, D.C.. However, in these visits, the ROC President invariably meets with staff members from the US government, although these visits are with lower ranking officials in non-governmental surroundings.
In the case of Southeast Asia, the ROC President was able to arrange visits in the early 1990s which were formally private tourist visits, however these have become increasingly infrequent as a result of PRC pressure.
At the annual
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit, the ROC President is forbidden from attending personally and must send a
special envoy to represent him at the event.
Elections
Further Information
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