National Assembly (Republic of China)

Calls for a National Assembly were part of the platform of the revolutionaries who ultimately overthrew the Qing dynasty. In response, the Qing dynasty formed the first assembly in 1910, but it was virtually powerless and intended only as an advisory body. In the early Republican Era, the bicameral National Assembly was established by the Beiyang government. The design referred the structure of the United States Congress as Senate (參議院) and House of Representative (眾議院). However, the Warlord Era with the interference of military power toward the constitution suppressed the authority and the reputation of the National Assembly.

In 1946, the Constituent Assembly promulgated a new constitution and the first National Assembly met in 1948 in Nanjing, the Chinese capital. Shortly afterwards in 1949, mainland China fell to the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, and the National Assembly (along with the entire ROC government) was relocated to Taipei. Apart from the KMT, the only legal parties were the Democratic Socialist Party and the Youth Party.

National Assembly Building in Nanking, the meeting place of the first sesion of the first National Assembly in 1948

Paifang outside the National Assembly Building in Nanking during the 1948 National Assembly session.

Under the constitution, the main duty of the National Assembly was to elect the President and Vice President for terms of six years. It also had the right to recall or impeach the President and Vice President if they failed to fulfill their political responsibilities. According to "National Assembly Duties Act," the National Assembly could amend the constitution with a two-thirds majority, with at least three-quarters membership present, as well as to ratify constitutional amendedments proposed by deputies of the Legislative Yuan. It could also change territorial boundaries. After the KMT moved to Taiwan, the Assembly's right to legislate was put into moratorium until at least half of all counties in the nation were again able to elect representatives via their County Assemblies. The responsibilities of the deputies of the Assembly, as well as of the Assembly as a whole, were derived from the directions of Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

In accordance with the 76th interpretation of the 1947 Constitution by the Judicial Yuan in 1957, the NA formed part of a three-chamber tricameral parliament together with the Legislative and Control Yuans[2] and was the seniormost chamber of parliament. During the years when it elected or recalled the president and vice president, it acted as a electoral college with all its county representatives serving as electors.

The first National Assembly was to serve for a period of only six years. However, according to the Kuomintang (KMT) leadership, the fall of the Mainland made it impossible to hold new elections there, as all Mainland provinces were under "Communist rebellion". As a result, the Judicial Yuan decided that the original members of the National Assembly representing Communist-controlled constituencies must continue to hold office until new elections could be held. National Assembly elections were still held in territories under ROC control.

Chung-Shan Hall, located in downtown Taipei, meeting place of the National Assembly between 1950 and 1966.

Chung-Shan Building, located in the Yangmingshan region of Taipei, meeting place of the National Assembly from 1972 to its dissolution in 2005.

Secretariat building of the National Assembly, downtown Taipei.

The Secretariat of National Assembly in Taipei.

As a result of this decision, the same National Assembly, elected in 1947, remained for 44 years until 1991, when as part of a constitutional ruling a Second National Assembly was elected. There was strong objection to the Assembly, which was derisively called the "ten-thousand-year Congress" (萬年國會) by critics.

Shortly after passing constitutional reforms in 1991, the National Assembly held direct elections in December. Following a 1994 constitutional amendment, the Assembly essentially became a permanent constituent assembly, as the Assembly's other major role, to elect the President and Vice President of the Republic of China, was abolished. Direct elections for the president, vice president, and Assembly were held simultaneously in March 1996. Most of its other former functions, such as hearing the president's State of the Nation Address and approving the president's nominations of the grand justices and the heads of the Examination and Control Yuans, are now the functions of the Legislative Yuan.

In 1999, the Assembly passed constitutional amendments to extend terms of the Assembly and Legislative Yuan, which were strongly criticized by the public. The People First Party was founded shortly after the 2000 presidential election. The two larger parties, the Kuomintang and Democratic Progressive Party, wished to bar the People First Party (PFP) from the National Assembly. As a result, the 2000 National Assembly elections were canceled, and delegates were to be selected ad hoc on the basis of proportional representation via special election within six months of the Legislative Yuan proposing constitutional amendments, calling for the impeachment of the president or vice president, or declaring a vote on changes to national borders. However, no such situation arose from 2000 to 2004, and the National Assembly never met during this period.

On 23 August 2004, the Legislative Yuan proposed a series of amendments that included dissolution of the National Assembly. The purpose of this proposal is to transfer power to ratify constitutional amendments and territorial amendments from the National Assembly to the People. Under the amendments, subsequent proposed amendments are to be approved by three-fourths of the present members in the Legislative Yuan, with at least three-fourths of all members present. It would then be promulgated for a period of 180 days and then submitted to a referendum, in which a simple majority of all eligible voters shall be sufficient to ratify the amendments. A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) proposal authorizing citizens initiative rights to propose constitutional amendments was withdrawn after it became clear that such a proposal would not pass the Legislative Yuan. Opponents of such constitutional reforms argued that by eliminating the 3/4 legislative vote requirement, a relatively small number of voters could force a referendum on Taiwan independence which would trigger a crisis with the People's Republic of China. By contrast, keeping the 3/4 legislative vote requirement would mean that any constitutional amendment would require a consensus among both the pan-green coalition and pan-blue coalition to be considered. The requirement that a majority of all voters approve the amendment allows for a party to block an amendment by boycotting the vote as was done with the referendums voted on alongside the March 2004 ROC Presidential elections.

Under the Constitution at the time, the National Assembly must then be elected to consider these amendments. Such consideration and eventual ratification of the constitutional amendments was originally considered to be a formality, but a number of unexpected complications occurred in 2005. The first was the poor showing of the People First Party (PFP) in the 2004 Legislative Yuan election. The PFP was widely expected to merge with the KMT, but PFP Chairman James Soong became disenchanted by the idea. The second was the reluctance of the Taiwan Solidarity Union to pass the amendments. These amendments were seen by some Taiwan independence supporters as a prelude to a later declaration of independence, but the results of the 2004 election made this very unlikely. Faced with this outcome, the TSU became very reluctant to support a reform that would make elections by small parties such as itself harder.

One final unexpected outcome occurred which gave the National Assembly elections on 14 May 2005 more significance than had been intended. The National Assembly election was lined up immediately after trips to mainland China by KMT Chairman Lien Chan and PFP Chairman James Soong. This had the effect of turning the May 14 elections into an opinion poll on relations with mainland China which was undesired by the Democratic Progressive Party, though the DPP subsequently gained a plurality in the elections.

2005 Taiwanese National Assembly election result

Government		249		Opposition		51
	Democratic Progressive Party	127			Taiwan Solidarity Union	21
	Kuomintang	117			People First Party	18
	Chinese People's Party	3			Democratic Action Coalition	5
	Peasant Party	1			New Party	3
	Civil Party	1			Non-Partisan Solidarity Union	2
					Taiwan Independence Party	1
					Independent	1
Endorse the constitutional amendment				Oppose the constitutional amendment

On 7 June 2005, the 300 delegates voted (by a majority of 249 to 48) the constitutional amendments into effect, and so dissolved the National Assembly until the "unification of the country" as stated in the preamble.[3]

When the Assembly is not in session, the secretary-general (Chinese: 秘書長; pinyin: Mìshūzhǎng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Pì-su-tiúⁿ) is the de facto highest-ranking official, in charge of the overall affairs of the Assembly and supervising its staff. Note that the secretary-general is entitled acting secretary-general when the National Assembly is not in session.

• The 1st and 2nd National Assemblies elected a presidium (Chinese: 主席團; pinyin: Zhǔxítuán; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chú-se̍k-thoân) as the leader of the body.
• The 3rd National Assembly elected a speaker (Chinese: 議長; pinyin: Yìzhǎng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gī-tiúⁿ) and a deputy speaker (Chinese: 副議長; pinyin: Fùyìzhǎng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hù-gī-tiúⁿ) to lead the assembly.
• The 2005 ad hoc National Assembly reverted to electing a presidium (Chinese: 主席團; pinyin: Zhǔxítuán; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chú-se̍k-thoân) as the leader of the body.

Speakers and Deputy Speakers of the 3rd National Assembly

No.	Session		Speaker			Deputy Speaker			President
	Starts on	Ends on	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Political Party	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Political Party
1	8 July 1996	13 January 1999		Fredrick Chien 錢復 (1935–) MNA for Nationwide KMT at-large №1	Kuomintang		Hsieh Lung-sheng 謝隆盛 (1941–2006) MNA for Nationwide KMT at-large №3	Kuomintang		Lee Teng-hui (KMT)
2	13 January 1999	8 September 1999		Su Nan-cheng 蘇南成[note 1] (1936–2014) MNA for Nationwide KMT at-large №8	Kuomintang		Chen Chin-jang 陳金讓 (1935–) MNA for Nationwide KMT at-large №2	Kuomintang
–	8 September 1999	19 May 2000		Chen Chin-jang 陳金讓 (acting) (1935–) MNA for Nationwide KMT at-large №2	Kuomintang	Deputy Speaker served as the acting Speaker

The 2005 ad hoc National Assembly elected a presidium with 11 members as follows: