The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan), located in Taipei. Since 2008, it is composed of 113 members who serve four-year terms. They are directly elected by voters in the Taiwan Area, through a parallel voting system.
Originally located in Nanjing, the Legislative Yuan, along with the National Assembly (electoral college) and the Control Yuan (upper house), formed the tricameral parliament under the original 1947 Constitution. The Legislative Yuan previously had 760 members representing constituencies in all of China (includes provinces, municipalities, Tibet Area, and various professions in Mainland China).
Until democratization, the Republic of China was an authoritarian state under the Dang Guo system. At the time, the Legislative Yuan functioned as a rubber stamp for the ruling regime of the Kuomintang.
Like parliaments or congresses of other countries, the Legislative Yuan is responsible for the passage of legislation, which is then sent to the president for signing. For these similarities, it is also common for people to refer to the Legislative Yuan as "the parliament" ().
Under the current amended Constitution, the Legislative Yuan, as the only parliamentary body, also holds the power to initiate several constitutional processes, including initiating constitutional amendments (then determined by a national referendum), recalls of the president (then determined by a recall vote), and impeachments of the president (then tried by the Constitutional Court).
Composition
Legislators
Starting with the 2008 legislative elections, changes were made to the Legislative Yuan in accordance with a constitutional amendment passed in 2005. The Legislative Yuan has 113 members serving four-year terms; 73 members are elected by first-past-the-post, 6 reserved for indigenous candidates by single non-transferable vote, and 34 by party-list proportional representation. The current Legislative Yuan convened on 1 February 2024, and its term ends on 31 January 2028.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Seat composition in the Legislative Yuan by caucus
! colspan="2" width="250" |Party/Caucus
!Caucus leader
!Seats
|-
| style="color:inherit;background: " |
|Kuomintang (KMT) Caucus
| align="center" |Fu Kun-chi
| align="center" |54
|-
| style="color:inherit;background: " |
|Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Caucus
| align="center" |Ker Chien-ming
| align="center" |51
|-
| style="color:inherit;background: " |
|Taiwan People's Party (TPP)
| align="center" |Huang Kuo-chang
| align="center" |8
|-
! colspan="2" |
!Total
!113
|}
The five largest parties with three or more seats can form caucuses. If there are fewer than five such parties, legislators in other parties or with no party affiliation can form caucuses with at least four members.
Leadership
The president and vice president of the Legislative Yuan are elected by the 113 legislators during a preparatory session in the beginning of their 4-year terms. President and vice president of the Legislative Yuan sometimes translate to speaker and deputy speaker respectively in English.
The President is responsible for appointing the Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General of the Legislative Yuan, as well as other legislative staff, who are described as the Administrative Unit. The Vice President serves in place during the absence of the President.
Functions
Powers
Like legislatures of other countries, the Legislative Yuan holds the following power according to the current amended Constitution:
- make laws and approve national budget, treaties, and emergency decrees issued by the president
- review executive decrees
- interpellation of government officials
- initiate no-confidence votes against the Executive Yuan
- approve appointments to the Examination Yuan, the Control Yuan, the grand justices, the auditor general, the public prosecutor general, the National Communications Commission, the Fair Trade Commission and the Central Election Commission,
- initiate the recall of the president or the vice president, and the impeachment of the president or the vice president
- initiate constitutional amendments, which must be referred to a referendum
Other governmental organs are authorized to propose legislative bills to the Legislative Yuan. Legislative bills proposed to the Legislative Yuan have to be cosigned by a certain number of legislators. Once a bill reaches the legislature, it is subject to a process of three readings.
Committees
- Standing committees:
- Internal Administration Committee
- Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee
- Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee
- Transportation Committee
- Education and Culture Committee
- Finance Committee
- Economics Committee
- Foreign and National Defense Committee
- Ad hoc committees:
- Procedure Committee
- Expenditure Examination Committee
- Constitutional Amendment Committee
- Discipline Committee
History
Constitutional theory
thumb|A stamp from the Legislative Yuan Library when it was based in [[Nanjing]]
The concept of Legislative Yuan was introduced by Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People. The theory proposed a separation of powers into five branches (). The Legislative Yuan, under Sun's political theory, is a branch of government elected by the National Assembly that serves as the standing legislative body when the National Assembly is not in session.
The legislators are to be elected through direct elections. In the constitution, Legislative Yuan, together with National Assembly and Control Yuan, form three chambers of a tricameral parliament according to the Judicial Yuan's interpretation number 76 of the Constitution (1957).
However, the later constitutional amendments in the 1990s removed the parliamentary roles from National Assembly and Control Yuan and transferred them to the Legislative Yuan, which became an unicameral parliament.
Establishment and relocation to Taiwan
thumb|Former Legislative Yuan building in Nanjing, 1928 (seen in 2017).
thumb|Former Legislative Yuan and [[Control Yuan building in Nanjing, 1946–1949 (seen in 2011).]]
The original Legislative Yuan was formed in the original capital of Nanjing after the completion of the Northern Expedition. Its 51 members were appointed to a term of two years. The 4th Legislative Yuan under this period had its members expanded to 194, and its term in office was extended to 14 years because of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). According to KMT political theory, these first four sessions marked the period of political tutelage.
The current Constitution of the Republic of China came into effect on 25 December 1947, and the first Legislative session convened in Nanjing on 18 May 1948, with 760 members. Six preparatory meetings had been held on 8 May 1948, during which Sun Fo and Chen Li-fu were elected president and vice president of the body. In 1949, mainland China fell to the Communist Party and the Legislative Yuan (along with the entire ROC government) was transplanted to Taipei. On 24 February 1950, 380 members convened at the Sun Yat-sen Hall in Taipei.
The first Legislative Yuan was to have been elected for a term of three years ending in 1951; however, the fall of mainland China made it impossible to hold new elections. As a result, the Judicial Yuan decided that the members of the Legislative Yuan would continue to hold office until new elections could be held on the Mainland. This decision was made in the belief that the KMT would retake the Mainland in a short time. However, over the years, as the prospect of regaining the Mainland diminished, this meant that the legislators from mainland districts (and members of the ruling KMT) held their seats for life, in a one-party system. The body thus came to be called "the Non-reelected Congress". making the passage of bills often dependent on the votes of a few defectors and independents. Because of the party situation there have been constitutional conflicts between the Legislative Yuan and the executive branch over the process of appointment for the premier and whether the president has the power to call a special session.
Amid 70% public support, the Legislative Yuan voted 217–1 on 23 August 2004 for a package of amendments to:
- Halve the number of seats from 225 to 113
- Switch to a single-member district parallel voting electoral system
- Increase the terms of members from 3 to 4 years, to synchronize the legislative and presidential elections. (The change was implemented for the next election cycle, as the legislative election was held in January 2008, and the presidential election followed in March.)
The new electoral system installed in 2008 includes 73 plurality seats (one for each electoral district), 6 seats for aboriginals, with the remaining 34 seats to be filled from party lists. Every county has a minimum of 1 electoral district, thereby guaranteed at least one seat in the legislature, while half of the proportionally represented seats drawn from party lists must be women.
Additionally, the Legislative Yuan proposed to abolish the National Assembly. Future amendments would still be proposed by the LY by a three-fourths vote from a quorum of at least three-fourths of all members of the Legislature. After a mandatory 180-day promulgation period, the amendment would have to be ratified by an absolute majority of all eligible voters of the ROC irrespective of voter turnout. The latter requirement would allow a party to kill a referendum proposal by asking that their voters boycott the vote as was done by the KMT with the referendums associated with the 2004 presidential election.
A DPP proposal to allow the citizens the right to initiate constitutional referendums was pulled off the table, due to a lack of support. The proposal was criticized for dangerously lowering the threshold for considering a constitutional amendment. Whereas a three-fourths vote of the LY would require that any proposed constitutional amendment have a broad political consensus behind it, a citizen's initiative would allow a fraction of the electorate to force a constitutional referendum. It was feared that allowing this to occur would result in a referendum on Taiwan independence which would likely result in a crisis with the People's Republic of China.
The Legislative Yuan also proposed to give itself the power to summon the president for an annual "state of the nation" address and launch a recall of the president and vice president (proposed by one fourth and approved by two thirds of the legislators and be submitted to a nationwide referendum for approval or rejection by majority vote). The Legislative Yuan will also have the power to propose the impeachment of the president or vice president to the Council of Grand Justices.
An ad hoc National Assembly was elected and formed in 2005 to ratify the amendments. The downsized Legislative Yuan took effect after the 2008 elections.
On 20 July 2007, the Legislative Yuan passed a Lobbying Act.
Elections and terms
The Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan in 1949, the year following the first legislative elections (1948) after the enactment of the 1947 constitution. As the Kuomintang government continues to claim sovereignty over Mainland China, the term of the original legislators was extended until "re-election is possible in their original electoral districts." In response to the increasing democracy movement in Taiwan, limited supplementary elections were held in Taiwan starting from 1969 and parts of Fujian from 1972. Legislators elected in these supplementary elections served together with those who were elected in 1948. This situation remained until a Constitutional Court (Judicial Yuan) ruling on 21 June 1991 that ordered the retirement of all members with extended terms by the end of 1991.
{|class=wikitable
!Term!!Length!!Actual served!!Election!!Seats!!Note
|-
|align=center rowspan=8|1st||rowspan=8|Initially 3 years,<br />then limit removed by<br />Temporary Provisions||rowspan=8|<br />(See Note column for<br />detailed terms)
|1948 election||759||The only election held in mainland China. 8 seats were elected in Taiwan.<br />509 members retreated to Taiwan with the government; served until the end of 1991.
|-
|1969 1st supp||11||Elected in Taiwan; terms equal to the 1948-elected members
|-
|1972 2nd supp||51||Elected in the Free Area with 3-year terms.
|-
|1975 3rd supp||52||Elected in the Free Area with 3-year terms; then extended to 5 years.
|-
|1980 4th supp||97||Elected in the Free Area with 3-year terms.
|-
|1983 5th supp||98||Elected in the Free Area with 3-year terms.
|-
|1986 6th supp||100||Elected in the Free Area with 3-year terms.
|-
|1989 7th supp||130||Elected in the Free Area with 3-year terms; served until 31 January 1993.
|-
|align=center|2nd||rowspan=5|3 years||
|1992 election||161||Total re-election in the Free Area
|-
|align=center|3rd||
|1995 election||164||
|-
|align=center|4th||
|1998 election||rowspan=3|225||
|-
|align=center|5th||
|2001 election||
|-
|align=center|6th||
|2004 election||
|-
|align=center|7th||rowspan=5|4 years||
|2008 election||rowspan=5|113||Introduced changes in the electoral system, term length, and seat numbers.
|-
|align=center|8th||
|2012 election||
|-
|align=center|9th||
|2016 election||
|-
|align=center|10th||
|2020 election||
|-
|align=center|11th||
|2024 election||Incumbent
|}
Timeline of Legislative Yuan elections and terms
<timeline>
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
PlotArea = right:80 left:100 bottom:60 top:10
DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1948 till:01/01/2033
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
Legend = orientation:vertical
Colors =
id:gridmajor value:gray(0.2)
id:gridminor value:gray(0.9)
id:chn value:redorange legend:Elected_in_mainland_China_and_Taiwan
id:spp value:gray(0.5) legend:Supplementary_members_elected_in_Taiwan
id:twn value:oceanblue legend:Elected_in_Taiwan_after_1991_amendments
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:gridmajor unit:year increment:5 start:01/01/1950
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:gridminor unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/1948
BarData =
bar:1st text:1st
bar:sp0 text:1st, supp
bar:sp1 text:1st, 1st supp
bar:sp2 text:1st, 2nd supp
bar:sp3 text:1st, 3rd supp
bar:sp4 text:1st, 4th supp
bar:sp5 text:1st, 5th supp
bar:sp6 text:1st, 6th supp
bar:2nd text:2nd
bar:3rd text:3rd
bar:4th text:4th
bar:5th text:5th
bar:6th text:6th
bar:7th text:7th
bar:8th text:8th
bar:9th text:9th
bar:10th text:10th
bar:11th text:11th
PlotData =
width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:till fontsize:m
bar:1st
from: 05/18/1948 till: 12/31/1991 color:chn text:759 seats (1948)
bar:sp0
from: 02/01/1970 till: 12/31/1991 color:spp text:11 seats
bar:sp1
from: 02/01/1973 till: 01/31/1976 color:spp text:51 seats
bar:sp2
from: 02/01/1976 till: 01/31/1981 color:spp text:52 seats
bar:sp3
from: 02/01/1981 till: 01/31/1984 color:spp text:97 seats
bar:sp4
from: 02/01/1984 till: 01/31/1987 color:spp text:98 seats
bar:sp5
from: 02/01/1987 till: 01/31/1990 color:spp text:100 seats
bar:sp6
from: 02/01/1990 till: 01/31/1993 color:spp text:130 seats
bar:2nd
from: 02/01/1993 till: 01/31/1996 color:twn text:161 seats
bar:3rd
from: 02/01/1996 till: 01/31/1999 color:twn text:163 seats
bar:4th
from: 02/01/1999 till: 01/31/2002 color:twn text:225 seats
bar:5th
from: 02/01/2002 till: 01/31/2005 color:twn text:225 seats
bar:6th
from: 02/01/2005 till: 01/31/2008 color:twn text:225 seats
bar:7th
from: 02/01/2008 till: 01/31/2012 color:twn text:113 seats
bar:8th
from: 02/01/2012 till: 01/31/2016 color:twn text:113 seats
bar:9th
from: 02/01/2016 till: 01/31/2020 color:twn text:113 seats
bar:10th
from: 02/01/2020 till: 01/31/2024 color:twn text:113 seats
bar:11th
from: 02/01/2024 till: 01/31/2028 color:twn text:113 seats
</timeline>
The legislature had 225 members during the 4th, 5th, and 6th terms. Legislators were elected as follows:
- 168 were elected by popular vote through single non-transferable vote in multi-member constituencies.
- 41 were elected on the basis of the proportion of nationwide votes received by participating political parties.
- 8 were allocated for overseas citizens and were selected by the parties on the basis of the proportion of votes received nationwide.
- 8 seats were reserved for the indigenous populations.
Since the 7th term, the 113 legislators are elected to office as follows:
- 73 are elected under the first-past-the-post system in single-member constituencies.
- 34 are elected under the supplementary member system on a second ballot, based on nationwide votes, and calculated using the largest remainder method by the Hare quota. Any party which receives 5% or more of the party vote can enter the parliament. For each party, at least half of the legislators elected under this system must be female.
- 6 seats are elected by indigenous voters through single non-transferable vote in two three-member constituencies.
Composition by term
The Kuomintang (KMT) held a supermajority of seats in the Legislative Yuan between 1948 and 1991, while some seats were held by the Chinese Youth Party (CYP) and the China Democratic Socialist Party (CDSP). Through the limited supplementary elections held in since the 1970s, the Tangwai movement saw their share of seats increase. Most members in the Tangwai movement joined the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after its founding in the late 1980s.
{|class=wikitable style="font-size:90%;text-align:center;"
!rowspan=2|Term
!colspan=5|Majority
!rowspan=2|Speaker
!colspan=5|Minority
!rowspan=2|Total<br />seats
|-
!colspan=2|Party!!Party leader!!Caucus leader!!Seats
!Seats!!Caucus leader!!Party leader!!colspan=2|Party
|-
|rowspan=2 align=center|1st<br />
|rowspan=2 style="background: ;"| ||rowspan=2|KMT
|rowspan=2|Lee Teng-hui
|rowspan=2|
|rowspan=2 style="background:lightgreen;"|94
|rowspan=2|Liu Sung-pan
|style="background:lightpink;"|21
|
|Hsu Hsin-liang
|DPP||style="background: ;"|
|rowspan=2|130
|-
|1||||
|CYP||style="background: #EEBB33;"|
|-
|bgcolor=grey colspan=13|
|-
|rowspan=2 align=center|2nd
|rowspan=2 style="background: ;"| ||rowspan=2|KMT
|rowspan=2|Lee Teng-hui
|rowspan=2|
|rowspan=2 style="background:lightgreen;"|95
|rowspan=2|Liu Sung-pan
|style="background:lightpink;"|51
|Shih Ming-teh
|Hsu Hsin-liang (1992–1993)<br />Shih Ming-teh (1993–1995)
|DPP||style="background: ;"|
|rowspan=2|162
|-
|1||||Ju Gau-jeng
|CSDP||style="background: #EEBB33;"|
|-
|bgcolor=grey colspan =13|
|-
|rowspan=2|3rd
|rowspan=2 style="background: ;"| ||rowspan=2|KMT
|rowspan=2|Lee Teng-hui||rowspan=2|
|rowspan=2 style="background:lightgreen;"|85
|rowspan=2|Liu Sung-pan
|style="background:lightpink;"| 54
|Shih Ming-teh
|Shih Ming-teh (1995–1996)<br />Hsu Hsin-liang (1996–1998)<br />Lin Yi-hsiung (1998)
|DPP||style="background: ;"|
|rowspan=2| 164
|-
|21||Chou Yang-shan||Chen Kuei-miao
|NP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|bgcolor=grey colspan=13|
|-
|rowspan=6|4th
|rowspan=6 style="background: ;"| ||rowspan=6|KMT
|rowspan=6|Lee Teng-hui (1998–2000)<br />Lien Chan (2000–2001)
|rowspan=6|Hong Yuh-chin
|rowspan=6 style="background:lightgreen;"| 123
|rowspan=6|Wang Jin-pyng
|style="background:lightpink;"|70
|Shih Ming-teh
|Lin Yi-hsiung (1998–2000)<br />Frank Hsieh (2000–2001)
|DPP||style="background: ;"|
|rowspan=6|225
|-
|11||Hsieh Chi-ta (2001)||Chou Yang-shan
|NP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|4|| ||
|DUT||style="background: #FFCC33;"|
|-
|3||Yeh Hsien-hsiu||
|DNPA||style="background: #FFDD77;"|
|-
|1||||
|NNA||style="background: #5d2971;"|
|-
|1||||
|TIP||style="background: #6EC5DC;"|
|-
|bgcolor=grey colspan=13|
|-
|rowspan=4|5th
|rowspan=4 style="background: ;"| ||rowspan=4|DPP
|rowspan=4|Frank Hsieh (2001–2002)<br />Chen Shui-bian (2002–2004)
|rowspan=4|Ker Chien-ming
|rowspan=4 style="background:lightyellow;"|87
|rowspan=4|Wang Jin-pyng
|style="background:lightpink;"|68
|Hong Yuh-chin
|Lien Chan
|KMT||style="background: ;"|
|rowspan=4|225
|-
|46||Chung Shao-ho||James Soong
|PFP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|13||Liao Pen-yen||Huang Chu-wen
|TSU||style="background: ;"|
|-
|1||||Yok Mu-ming
|NP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|bgcolor=grey colspan=13|
|-
|rowspan=5|6th
|rowspan=5 style="background: ;"| ||rowspan="5"| DPP
|rowspan=5|Su Tseng-chang (2005)<br />Yu Shyi-kun (2006–2007)<br />Chen Shui-bian (2007–2008)
|rowspan=5|Ker Chien-ming
|rowspan=5 style="background:lightyellow;"|89
|rowspan=5|Wang Jin-pyng
|style="background:lightpink;"|79
|Tseng Yung-chuan
|Lien Chan (2004–2005)<br />Ma Ying-jeou (2005–2007)<br />Wu Po-hsiung (2007)<br />Chiang Pin-kung (2007)<br />Wu Po-hsiung (2007–2008)
|KMT||style="background: ;"|
|rowspan=5|225
|-
|34||Daniel Huang||James Soong
|PFP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|12||
|Huang Chu-wen (2004)<br />Shu Chin-chiang (2005–2006)<br />Huang Kun-huei (2007–2008)
|TSU||style="background: ;"|
|-
|6||Yen Ching-piao||Chang Po-ya
|NPSU||style="background: ;"|
|-
|1||||Yok Mu-ming
|NP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|bgcolor=grey colspan=13|
|-
|rowspan=4|7th
|rowspan=4 style="background: ;" | ||rowspan=5|KMT
|rowspan=4| Wu Po-hsiung (2008–2009)<br />Ma Ying-jeou (2009–2012)
|rowspan=4| Tseng Yung-chuan (2008)<br />Lin Yi-shih (2008–2012)
|rowspan=4 style="background:lightgreen;"| 81→74
|rowspan=4|Wang Jin-pyng
|style="background:lightpink;"| 27→33
|Ker Chien-ming
|Chen Shui-bian (2008)<br />Tsai Ing-wen (2008–2012)
|DPP||style="background: ;"|
|rowspan=5|113
|-
|3||rowspan=2| ||Lin Pin-kuan
|NPSU||style="background: ;"|
|-
|0→1||
|Indep.||style="background: ;"|
|-
|1||||James Soong
|PFP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|bgcolor=grey colspan=13|
|-
|rowspan=4|8th
|rowspan=3 style="background: ;"| ||rowspan=3 |KMT
|rowspan=3|Ma Ying-jeou (2012–2014)<br />Wu Den-yih (2014–2015)<br />Eric Chu Li-luan (2015–2016)
|rowspan=4|Lin Hung-chih (2012–2014)<br />Alex Fai Hrong-tai (2014–2015)<br />Lai Shyh-bao (2015–2016)
|rowspan=3 style="background:lightgreen;"| 64→66
|rowspan=4|Wang Jin-pyng
|style="background:lightpink;"|40
|Ker Chien-ming
|Tsai Ing-wen (2012)<br />Su Tseng-chang (2012–2014)<br />Tsai Ing-wen (2014–2016)
|DPP||style="background: ;"|
|rowspan=4|113
|-
|3||Lisa Huang<br />Lai Chen-chang||Huang Kun-huei
|TSU||style="background: ;"|
|-
|3→2
|rowspan=2|Thomas Lee||James Soong
|PFP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|style="background: ;"| ||Indep.||
|style="background:lightgreen;" |1→0
|2→1||Lin Pin-kuan
|NPSU||style="background: ;"|
|-
|bgcolor=grey colspan=13|
|-
|rowspan=4|9th
|rowspan=3 style="background: ;"| ||rowspan=3|DPP
|rowspan=3|Tsai Ing-wen (2016–2018)<br />Cho Jung-tai (2019–2020)
|rowspan=4|Ker Chien-ming
|rowspan=3 style="background:lightgreen;"|68
|rowspan=4|Su Jia-chyuan
|style="background:lightpink;"|35
|Lai Shyh-bao (2016)<br />Liao Kuo-tung (2016–2017)<br />Lin Te-fu (2017–2018)<br />Johnny Chiang (2018–2019)<br />Tseng Ming-chung (2019–2020)
|Huang Min-hui (2016)<br />Hung Hsiu-chu (2016–2017)<br />Wu Den-yih (2017–2020)
|KMT||style="background: ;"|
|rowspan=4|113
|-
|5→3||Hsu Yung-ming
|Huang Kuo-chang (2016–2019)<br />Chiu Hsien-chih (2019)<br />Hsu Yung-ming (2019–2020)
|NPP||style="background:;"|
|-
|3||rowspan=2|Lee Hung-chun||James Soong
|PFP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|style="background: ;"| ||Indep.
|||style="background:lightgreen;"|1
|1||Lin Pin-kuan
|NPSU||style="background: ;"|
|-
|bgcolor=grey colspan=13|
|-
|rowspan=6|10th
|rowspan=5 style="background: ;"| ||rowspan=5|DPP
|rowspan=5|Cho Jung-tai (2020)<br />Tsai Ing-wen (2020–2022)<br />William Lai (2023–2024)
|rowspan=6|Ker Chien-ming
|rowspan=5 style="background:lightgreen;"|61→62
|rowspan=6|Yu Shyi-kun
|style="background:lightpink;"|38→37
|rowspan=2|Lin Wei-chou (2020–2021) <br />Alex Fai (2021–2022) <br />Tseng Ming-chung (2022–2024)
|Lin Jung-te (2020)<br />Johnny Chiang (2020–2021)<br />Eric Chu (2021–2024)
|KMT||style="background: ;"|
|rowspan=6|113
|-
|style="background:lightpink;"|2→1||
|Indep.||style="background: ;"|
|-
|5||Lai Hsiang-lin||Ko Wen-je
|TPP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|3||Chiu Hsien-chih||Hsu Yung-ming (2020)<br />Chiu Hsien-chih (2020)<br />Kao Yu-ting (2020)<br />Chen Jiau-hua (2020–2023)<br />Claire Wang (2023–2024)
|NPP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|1→0||||Chen Yi-chi
|TSP||style="background: ;"|
|-
|style="background: ;"| ||Indep.||
|style="background:lightgreen;" |2
|1→2||||
|Indep.||style="background: ;"|
|-
|bgcolor=grey colspan=13|
|-
|rowspan=2|11th
| style="background: ;"| ||KMT
|Eric Chu (2024–2025) Cheng Li-wun (2025–Present)
|rowspan=2|Fu Kun-chi
| style="background:lightyellow;"|52→53
|rowspan=2|Han Kuo-yu
|style="background:lightpink;"|51
|Ker Chien-ming
|William Lai
|DPP||style="background: ;"|
|rowspan=2|113
|-
|style="background: ;"| ||Indep.||
|style="background:lightyellow;" |2→1
|8||Huang Kuo-chang(2024-2026)
Chen Ching-lung (2026-Present)
|Ko Wen-je (2024–2025)
Huang Kuo-chang(2025–Present)
|TPP||style="background: ;"|
|}
Issues
Protests and occupation
On 18 March 2014, the Legislative Yuan was occupied by protesting students.
Legislative violence
Much of the work of the Legislative Yuan is done via legislative committees, and a common sight on Taiwanese television involves officials of the executive branch answering extremely hostile questions from opposition members in committees. In the 1990s, there were a number of cases of violence breaking out on the floor, usually triggered by some perceived unfair procedure ruling, but in recent years, these have become less common. There was a brawl involving 50 legislators in January 2007 and an incident involving 40 legislators on 8 May 2007 when a speaker attempted to speak about reconfiguring the Central Election Committee. It has been alleged that fights are staged and planned in advance. These antics led the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research to award the Legislative Yuan its Ig Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 "for demonstrating that politicians gain more by punching, kicking and gouging each other than by waging war against other nations". On 29 June 2020 more than 20 lawmakers affiliated with the Kuomintang took over the legislature over night, blocking entry to the main chamber with chains and chairs, saying the government was trying to force through legislation and demanding the president withdraw the nomination of a close aide to a high-level watchdog. Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers forced themselves in while there were scuffles and shouting with Kuomintang lawmakers. On 18 May 2024, a lawmaker attempted to steal a bill in an attempt to prevent it from being passed. This resulted in a brawl on the chamber floor due to the chaos.
Building
The current Legislative Yuan building in Taipei, was formerly the constructed during the Japanese colonial rule since 1960 with the administrative offices previously a dormitory. Over the years, there were several proposals to relocate the Legislative Yuan. The 1990 proposal to move the legislature to the location of the defunct Huashan station, was passed in 1992, then abandoned after the budget was cut. A second proposal in 1999 suggested that the legislature move to what had previously served as Air Force Command Headquarters. This proposition was opposed by the Taipei City Council and funds for disaster relief became a priority after the Jiji earthquake. Other relocation proposals include moving the parliament to Taichung, New Taipei, Changhua County, or Yilan County.
Gallery
<gallery widths="220">
File:中華民國立法院 (議場内) Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China (chamber, interior).jpg|The chamber of the Legislative Yuan
File:Legislative Yuan (0212).JPG|Legislative Yuan building
File:高雄市長 韓國瑜.jpg|Han Kuo-yu, the current president of the Legislative Yuan
File:Wang Jin-pyng, President of the Legislative Yuan (7172294519).jpg|Wang Jin-pyng, the longest-serving president of the Legislative Yuan
</gallery>
See also
- 11th Legislative Yuan
- History of the Republic of China
- Legislative violence
- List of Ig Nobel Prize winners
- Politics of the Republic of China
