President of the Republic of China

The president of the Republic of China, also known as the president of Taiwan, is the head of state of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as well as the commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. Before 1949 the position had the authority of ruling over mainland China, but losing control of it after communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, the remaining jurisdictions of the ROC have been limited to Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and smaller islands.

Originally elected by the National Assembly, the presidency was intended to be a ceremonial office with no real executive power because the ROC was originally envisioned as a parliamentary republic. Since the 1996 election however, the president has been directly elected by plurality voting to a four-year term, with incumbents limited to serving two terms. The current president is Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party, preceded by Tsai Ing-wen from the same party.

Qualifications

The Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act states that a candidate for president or vice president must be a citizen of the Republic of China, at least 40 years old, and a resident of the Taiwan Area for a period of no less than 15 years with a physical presence of no less than 6 consecutive months.
The following persons shall not be registered as candidates for the president:
Military personnel
Election officials
People who hold foreign nationality or who do not reside in the Free Area of the Republic of China
People who have restored their nationality or acquired their nationality by naturalization

Powers

The president is currently elected for a term of four years by a plurality voting direct election of areas administered by the Republic of China. Before 1991, the president was selected by the National Assembly of the Republic of China for a term of six years.

The Constitution of the Republic of China names the president as head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces (formerly the National Revolutionary Army). 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, but can approve or decline a veto proposed by the Executive Yuan (Cabinet). Other powers of the president include granting amnesty, pardon or clemency, declaring martial law, and conferring honors and decorations.

The president may, by resolution of the Executive Yuan Council, issue emergency decrees and take all necessary measures to avert imminent danger affecting the security of the state or of the people or to cope with any serious financial or economic crisis. However, such decrees shall, within ten days of issuance, be presented to the Legislative Yuan for ratification. Should the Legislative Yuan withhold ratification, said emergency decrees are rendered invalid.

The president may, within ten days following passage by the Legislative Yuan of a no-confidence vote against the premier, dissolve the Legislative Yuan after consulting with its president. However, the president may not dissolve the Legislative Yuan while martial law or an emergency decree is in effect. Following a dissolution of the Legislative Yuan, an election for legislators must be held within 60 days.

The president can also appoint senior advisors (), national policy advisors () and strategy advisors (), but they do not form a council.

The Constitution does not 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 presidency (to which he nominated Hu Shih) be reduced to a figurehead role. 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 presidential power depended largely on who occupied the office. For example, Yen Chia-kan was a mostly ceremonial president, with real power in the hands of Premier Chiang Ching-Kuo, who carried said power with him to the office of president. After President Lee Teng-hui succeeded Chiang as president in 1988, the power struggle within the KMT extended to 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 ascent to power. The appointments of Lee Huan and Hau were compromises by President Lee to placate KMT conservatives. The subsequent appointment of the first native Taiwanese premier, Lien Chan, was seen as Lee consolidating power. Moreover, during this time the power of the premier to approve the presidential appointments, and the power of the Legislative Yuan to confirm the president's choice of premier, were removed. This established the president as the more powerful official.

After the 2000 election of Chen Shui-bian as president, the presidency and Legislative Yuan were controlled by different parties, which brought forth a number of latent constitutional issues, such as the role of the Legislative Yuan in appointing and dismissing a premier, the right of the president to call a special session of the Legislative Yuan, and exactly who has the power to call a referendum. Most of these issues have been resolved through inter-party negotiations.

Succession

thumb|[[Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren were elected by the National Assembly to be the first-term president and vice president on 20 May 1948.]]

The Constitution of the Republic of China gives a short list of persons who will succeed to the presidency if the office were to fall vacant. According to the Additional Articles of the Constitution, Article 2:

As no president of the Executive Yuan (also known as the premier) has ever succeeded to the presidency under these provisions (or their predecessors, under Article 49), it is untested whether, should the office of the premier be vacant as well, whether, pursuant to the Additional Articles, Article 3, the vice president of the Executive Yuan (vice premier), who would be acting premier, would act as president.

Secretary-general to the president

The secretary-general to the president is the highest-ranking official in the Office of the President and supervises the staff of the office. The current secretary-general is Pan Men-an.

Symbols

thumb|upright=0.75|Podium symbol used by the president

The president's podium bears the symbol of a golden plum blossom surrounded by wreath laurel on front side.

The , officially called the Commander-in-Chief Standard of the Republic of China, is the symbol of the President as head the Republic of China Armed Forces. The Standard is a rectangular, red field with a thin, yellow border. In the center of the red field is the national emblem of the Republic of China. The Standard is flown from the Presidential Office, as well as other buildings for the president’s use; facilities for presidential visits; transportation vehicles when used by the president; and in other ceremonial contexts. The Standard was designed by Chiang Kai-shek in 1928, based on the flag of Whampoa Military Academy, which was in turn designed by Ho Ying-chin in 1924, and revised in 1988.

The is square, and its inscription is written in seal script (). It is written vertically in two columns, with the right-hand line containing the characters (Zǒngtǒng), and the left-hand line containing the characters (Zhīyìn).

Elections

|400px|thumb|Electoral maps of direct presidential elections in Taiwan (until 2016).

|[[File:ROC direct presidential elections ratio-bar.svg|350px|thumb|Comparison of the vote percentages in the direct presidential elections.

: Democratic Progressive Party candidates

: Kuomintang candidates

: People First Party candidates, or James Soong.

: New Party nominated or endorsed candidates.

: Taiwan People's Party candidates

: Other independents]]

{|class=wikitable

!Order!!Main article!!Form of election

|align=center|1st||1948 Chinese presidential election

| rowspan="4" |Indirect election by the 1st National Assembly (delegates elected in 1947)

|align=center|2nd||1954 Taiwanese presidential election

|align=center|3rd||1960 Taiwanese presidential election

|align=center|4th||1966 Taiwanese presidential election

|align=center|5th||1972 Taiwanese presidential election

|Indirect election by the 1st National Assembly (delegates elected in 1947 and 1969)

|align=center|6th||1978 Taiwanese presidential election

|Indirect election by the 1st National Assembly (delegates elected in 1947, 1969, and 1972)

|align=center|7th||1984 Taiwanese presidential election

|Indirect election by the 1st National Assembly (delegates elected in 1947, 1969, and 1980)

|align=center|8th||1990 Taiwanese presidential election

|Indirect election by the 1st National Assembly (delegates elected in 1947, 1969, and 1986)

|align=center|9th||1996 Taiwanese presidential election

| rowspan="8" |Direct election by Taiwanese people (citizens of the Free area)

|align=center|10th||2000 Taiwanese presidential election

|align=center|11th||2004 Taiwanese presidential election

|align=center|12th||2008 Taiwanese presidential election

|align=center|13th||2012 Taiwanese presidential election

|align=center|14th||2016 Taiwanese presidential election

|align=center|15th||2020 Taiwanese presidential election

|align=center|16th||2024 Taiwanese presidential election

History

Taiwan was previously led by the emperor of Japan during colonial rule by Japan from 1895 to 1945, represented by the governor-general of Taiwan.

After the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising against Qing rule in 1911, the revolutionaries elected Sun Yat-sen as the "provisional president" () of the transitional government, with the Republic of China officially established on 1 January 1912. But Sun soon resigned from the provisional presidency in favor of Yuan Shikai, who assumed the title "Great President" () in March 1912. Yuan induced the Last Emperor to abdicate, ending thousands of years of imperial rule in China. 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 dictatorial 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 the Warlord Era began. 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" (). 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" (). 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 National 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 National 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 National Government domestic control and foreign recognition, and the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Japanese established a puppet "Reorganized" National Government 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 National 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 25 December 1947, established a five-branch government with the office of president () as head of state. On 20 May 1948, Chiang Kai-shek was formally elected by the National Assembly to be the first term president.

After the KMT lost mainland China 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 after 1960. In 1954, as the term of the first National Assembly were about to expire, the Judicial Yuan ruled that the expired seats of the National Assembly would continue in power until the respective delegate region elections could be held. This largely froze the membership of the National Assembly mainland delegates and prevented local Taiwanese from widespread legislative and assembly participation in the expired mainland seats until the early 1970s. 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 direct presidential election in 1996, while the term length was shortened from six to four years.

File:1911年中华民国临时大总统选举1.jpg|Official results of the election announcing Sun's election on November 10, 1911.

File:West_Garden_Hall,_Nanjing,_Aug_2016.jpg|The West Garden Hall in Presidential Palace, Nanjing, was the office of the provisional president in 1912.

File:原段祺瑞执政府.jpg|After Yuan Shikai's Peiyang Government took control of the ROC, the house in Peking was the office of the president.

File:National Government of the R.O.C.jpg|The Presidential Palace in Xuanwu District, Nanjing, housed the office of the chairman of the National Government of the ROC in 1927–1937.

File:Tzu-chao Building.jpg|The Presidential Building in Presidential Palace, Nanjing, was the office of the president of the ROC after the 1947 Chinese Constitution, until the Government of the ROC fled to Taiwan in 1949.

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Timeline of presidents

Cen Chunxuan was the president of the southern military government of the Republic of China from 1913 to 1921.

; 1st Provisional President and Presidents after the 1947 Constitution

File:孙中山肖像.jpg|Sun Yat-sen 1st Provisional President (served: 1912)

File:蔣中正總統玉照.png|1st: Chiang Kai-shek 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th terms (served: 1948–1975)

File:嚴家淦.jpg|2nd: Yen Chia-kan remaining 5th term (served: 1975–1978)

File:蔣經國總統 1.jpg|3rd: Chiang Ching-kuo 6th & 7th terms (served: 1978–1988)

File:李總統登輝先生玉照 (cropped).jpg|4th: Lee Teng-hui remaining 7th term, then 8th & 9th terms (served: 1988–2000)

File:總統陳水扁先生玉照 (國民大會實錄).jpg|5th: Chen Shui-bian 10th & 11th terms (served: 2000–2008)

File:中華民國第12、13任總統馬英九先生官方肖像照.jpg|6th: Ma Ying-jeou 12th & 13th terms (served: 2008–2016)

File:蔡英文官方元首肖像照.png|7th: Tsai Ing-wen 14th & 15th terms (served: 2016–2024)

File:賴清德總統 (cropped).jpg|8th: Lai Ching-te 16th term (serving: 2024–present)

President of the Republic of China

Qualifications

Powers

Succession

Secretary-general to the president

Symbols

Elections

History

Timeline of presidents

See also

Explanatory notes

References

External links