1.
Han unification
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Han unification is an effort by the authors of Unicode and the Universal Character Set to map multiple character sets of the so-called CJK languages into a single set of unified characters. Han characters are a feature of written Chinese, Japanese. Modern Chinese, Japanese and Korean typefaces typically use regional or historical variants of a given Han character, the database is available to the public as text files and via an interactive Web site. The latter also includes representative glyphs and definitions for compound words drawn from the free Japanese EDICT, the Unicode Standard details the principles of Han unification. The Ideographic Rapporteur Group, made up of experts from the Chinese-speaking countries, North and South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and other countries, is responsible for the process. One possible rationale is the desire to limit the size of the full Unicode character set, version 1 of Unicode was designed to fit into 16 bits and only 20,940 characters out of the possible 65,536 were reserved for these CJK Unified Ideographs. Later Unicode has been extended to 21 bits allowing many more CJK characters, there are four basic traditions for East Asian character shapes, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. While the Han root character may be the same for CJK languages, the glyphs in common use for the characters may not be. For example, the traditional Chinese glyph for grass uses four strokes for the grass radical 艹, whereas the simplified Chinese, Japanese, but there is only one Unicode point for the grass character regardless of writing system. Another example is the ideograph for one, which is different in Chinese, Japanese, many people think that the three versions should be encoded differently. In fact, the three ideographs for one are encoded separately in Unicode, as they are not considered national variants, the first and second are used on financial instruments to prevent tampering, while the third is the common form in all three countries. A grapheme is the smallest abstract unit of meaning in a writing system, any grapheme has many possible glyph expressions, but all are recognized as the same grapheme by those with reading and writing knowledge of a particular writing system. In contrast, consider ASCIIs unification of punctuation and diacritics, where graphemes with widely different meanings are unified because the graphemes are the same, for Unihan the characters are not unified by their appearance, but by their definition or meaning. Such glyph variations are considered by Unicode a feature of rich text protocols and this example also points to another reason that abstract character and grapheme as an abstract unit in a written language do not necessarily map one-to-one. In English the combining diaeresis, ¨, and the o it modifies may be seen as two separate graphemes, whereas in languages such as Swedish, the letter ö may be seen as a single grapheme. Similarly in English the dot on an i is understood as a part of the i grapheme whereas in languages, such as Turkish. To deal with the use of different graphemes for the same Unihan sememe, Unicode has relied on several mechanisms, one has been to treat it as simply a font issue so that different fonts might be used to render Chinese, Japanese or Korean. The problem with these approaches is that they fail to meet the goals of Unicode to define a consistent way of encoding multilingual text
2.
Qin's wars of unification
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By the end of the wars in 221 BC, Qin had unified most of the states and occupied some lands south of the Yangtze River. The territories conquered by Qin served as the foundation of the Qin dynasty, over the course of the Warring States period, the Qin state had evolved to become the most powerful of the seven major states in China. In 238 BC, Ying Zheng came to the throne of Qin after eliminating his political rivals Lü Buwei, with help from Li Si, Wei Liao and others, Ying Zheng formulated a plan for conquering the other six major states and unifying China. The plan, which focuses on annexing each state individually, is based on allying with distant states and attacking nearby ones and its key steps were, ally with Yan and Qi, hold down Wei and Chu, conquer Han and Zhao. Han was the weakest of the seven states and had previously been subject to attacks by Qin. In 230 BCE, the Qin army led by Interior Minister Teng moved south, crossed the Yellow River and conquered Zheng, King An of Han surrendered and Han came under Qins control. The territory of Han was reorganised to form the Qin Empires Yingchuan commandery, in 236 BCE, while Zhao was attacking Yan, Qin used the opportunity to send two separate forces to invade Zhao. The Qin army led by Wang Jian conquered the Zhao territories of Eyu and Liaoyang, while the other Qin army under the command of Huan Yi and Yang Duanhe captured Ye, Zhao lost nine cities and its military prowess was weakened. Two years later, Qin planned to attack Han, but feared that Zhao might render support to Han, more than 100,000 soldiers were killed in the battle. The Zhao army was defeated and its commander, Hu Zhe, was killed in action, in 233 BCE, Huan Yis army crossed Mount Taihang and conquered the Zhao territories of Chili and Yian, both located southeast of present-day Shijiazhuang, Hebei. In 232 BC, the Qin forces split into two groups to attack Fanwu and Langmeng, but were defeated by the Zhao army led by Li Mu, Huan Yi fled to Yan to escape punishment for his defeat. However, the Zhao forces also sustained losses and could only retreat to defend their capital. In the following two years, Zhao was struck by two natural disasters — an earthquake and a severe famine, in 229 BC, Qin took advantage of the situation to launch a pincer attack from the north and south on Handan, Zhaos capital. Three Qin armies embarked from Shangdi, Jingxing and Henei, respectively led by Wang Jian, Jiang Lei and Yang Duanhe, Li Mu and Sima Shang were put in command of the Zhao army. Li Mu ordered his troops to build structures and avoid direct confrontation with the enemy. The Qin forces were unable to further and both sides reached a stalemate. The Qin state bribed Guo Kai, a Zhao minister, to sow discord between King Qian of Zhao and Li Mu, the king doubted Li Mus loyalty and ordered Li to hand over his authority to his deputies, Zhao Cong and Yan Ju. When Li Mu refused to obey, the became more suspicious of him and ordered his men to take Li by surprise
3.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
4.
Taiwan
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Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a state in East Asia. Neighbours include China to the west, Japan to the northeast, Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and the one with the largest economy. The island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty, following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROCs loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, in the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage, Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, the PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC, the PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible. There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, the former name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means beautiful island. The name Formosa eventually replaced all others in European literature and was in use in English in the early 20th century. This name was adopted into the Chinese vernacular as the name of the sandbar. The modern word Taiwan is derived from this usage, which is seen in forms in Chinese historical records. Use of the current Chinese name was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture, through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as Taiwan. The official name of the state is the Republic of China and it was a member of the United Nations representing China until 1971, when it lost its seat to the Peoples Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become known as Taiwan. In some contexts, especially ones from the ROC government
5.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
6.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
7.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
8.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
9.
Politics of the Republic of China
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Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in primarily with the parliament and limited by government, the Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The party system is dominated by the Kuomintang, which favours closer links to mainland China, the ROC currently has jurisdiction over Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and several smaller islands. Taiwans six major cities, Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei, the rest of the territories are divided into 3 cities and 13 counties. The government in Taipei officially asserts to be the legitimate government of all of China, which it defined as including Taiwan, mainland China. In keeping with that claim, when the KMT fled to Taipei in 1949, they re-established the full array of political bodies. However, the National Assembly has not officially changed the national borders and it should be noted that neither the National Assembly nor the Supreme Court has actually defined what the term existing national boundaries, as stated in the constitution, actually means. The latter refused to do so claiming that it is a political issue. The original founding of the Republic centered on the Three Principles of the People, nationalism, democracy, however, this five races under one union principle and the corresponding flag were abandoned in 1927. In reality these three principles were left unrealized, Republican China was marked by warlordism, foreign invasion, and civil war. As the central government was weak, little could be done in terms of land reform or redistribution of wealth either. Politics of this era consisted primarily of the political and military struggle between the KMT and the Communist Party of China in between bouts of active resistance against Japanese invasion. The first national government of the Chinese Republic was established on 1 January 1912, in Nanjing, Provincial delegates were sent to confirm the authority of the national government, and they later also formed the first parliament. The power of national government was both limited and short-lived, with generals controlling all of central and northern China. The limited acts passed by this government included the formal abdication of the Qing dynasty, Yuan maintained power locally by sending military generals to be provincial governors or by obtaining the allegiance of those already in power. Foreign powers came to recognize Yuans power as well, when Japan came to China with Twenty-One Demands, it was Yuan that submitted to them, after the death of Yuan in 1916, the parliament of 1913 was reconvened to give legitimacy to a new government. However, the power of the time passed to military leaders. Still, the government had its use—when World War I began, several Western powers and Japan wanted China to declare war on Germany
10.
Government of the Republic of China
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This government moved to Beijing in the same year with Yuan Shikai as President, and continued under his successors as the internationally recognized government of China until 1928. In the Republican period, there were a series of governments, the Nationalist government, led by the Kuomintang, was originally formed as a rival military government under Sun Yat-sen in Guangzhou in 1917. After Suns death in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek led the Northern Expedition to unify the country and this government gained diplomatic recognition but did not control all the territory of the Qing dynasty. The Tutelage Constitution of 1931 was replaced by the Constitution of the Republic of China in 1947 and this new constitutional government moved to Taipei, Taiwan, in 1949 because of its military losses in the Chinese Civil War. It remains in Taiwan and exercises control over other islands including Penghu, Quemoy, Matsu, Itu Aba, Control of the government had historically been dominated by the Kuomintang, but the situation has changed as the Republic of China evolved into a multi-party democracy. The first Chinese national government was established on January 1,1912, in Nanjing, provincial delegates were sent to confirm the authority of the national government, and they later also formed the first parliament. The power of national government was limited and short-lived, with generals controlling both central and northern provinces of China. The limited acts passed by this government included the formal abdication of the Qing dynasty, Yuan maintained power locally by sending military generals to be provincial governors or by obtaining the allegiance of those already in power. When Yuan died, the parliament of 1913 was reconvened to give legitimacy to a new government, however, the real power of the time passed to military leaders, forming the warlord period. The impotent government still had its use, when World War I began, several Western powers and Japan wanted China to declare war on Germany, there were also several warlord governments and puppet states sharing the same name. See also, Wang Jingwei Government, Warlord era, known as the Nanjing Decade, the government ruled as a one-party state, as laid out by Sun Yat-sens Three Stages of Revolution and his policy of Dang Guo. The first stage was military unification, which was carried out with the Northern Expedition, the second was political tutelage which was a provisional government led by the KMT to educate people about their political and civil rights, and the third stage was constitutional government. The KMT considered themselves to be at the stage in 1928. With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the invading Imperial Japanese Army managed to capture Nanjing on December 13,1937, the Japanese then proceeded to sack the city, and massacred hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians. With the fall of Nanjing, the government was forced to move first to Wuhan and it retreated further inland to Chongqing, which was the wartime capital until 1945. Although Chongqing was located in the western province of Sichuan. With the end of the war, the National Government moved back to Nanjing, the Kuomintang then proceeded with the drafting of a new constitution for China, which were boycotted by the communists. The Constitution of the Republic of China was adopted by the National Assembly on December 25,1946, the constitution was seen as the third and final step in Sun Yat-sens Three Stages of Revolution - constitutional government
11.
Constitution of the Republic of China
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This made China the most populous paper democracy in the world. The latest revision to the constitution was in 2004, drafted by the Kuomintang as part of its third stage of national development, it established a centralized republic with five branches of government. Following the KMTs retreat to Taiwan in 1949, the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion gave the KMT government extra-constitutional powers, despite the Constitution, Taiwan was an authoritarian one-party state. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the Constitutions origins in mainland China led to supporters of Taiwan independence to push for a new Taiwanese constitution and it was only agreed to reform the Constitution of the Republic of China, not to create a new one. It was lastly amended in 2005, with the consent of both the KMT and the DPP, the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China was drawn up in March 1912 and formed the basic government document of the Republic of China until 1928. It provided a Western-style parliamentary system headed by a weak president, Yuan regularly flouted the elected assembly and assumed dictatorial powers. Upon his death in 1916, China disintegrated into warlordism and the Beiyang Government operating under the Constitution remained in the hands of military leaders. The Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek established control over much of China by 1928, the Nationalist Government promulgated the Provisional Constitution of the Political Tutelage Period on May 5,1931. In Leninist fashion, it permitted a system of dual party-state committees to form the basis of government, the KMT intended this Constitution to remain in effect until the country had been pacified and the people sufficiently educated to participate in democratic government. The current Constitution traces its origins to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the impending outbreak of the Chinese Civil War pressured Chiang Kai-shek into enacting a democratic Constitution that would end KMT one-party rule. The Communists sought a coalition of one-third Nationalists, one-third Communists, however, while rejecting this idea, the KMT and the CCP jointly held a convention at which both parties presented views. Amidst heated debate, many of the demands from the Communist Party were met, together, these drafts are called the Constitutional Draft of the Political Convention. The Constitution was seen as the third and final stage of Kuomintang reconstruction of China, the founding of the ROC was centered on the Three Principles of the People, which called for the establishment of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. A government by the people sought to create a Western parliamentary democracy, originally, the National Assembly was the parliament of the republic, but it lost relevance in the 1990s and was abolished in 2005 with its powers transferred to the Legislative Yuan. Dr. Sun also added two branches of government from the legacy of Chinas imperial past to the three branches of Western governments, the five branches or Yuan are, the Executive Yuan, Legislative Yuan, Judicial Yuan, Examination Yuan, and Control Yuan. As a result, the current government is in practice a semi-presidential system, a government for the people means that the government to a certain extent must provide services that are essential to the well-being of society. Examples of this principle in practice are the New Life Movement, the Three Principles of the People are Minzu, Minquan, and Minsheng, roughly defined as nationalism, democracy, and the livelihood of the people. Later that year, Chen Yi was dismissed and the Taiwan Provincial Government was established, from March 1947 until 1987, Taiwan was in a state of martial law
12.
Taxation in Taiwan
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Taxes provide an important source of revenue for various levels of the Government of the Republic of China. The tax revenue of Taiwan in 2015 amounted NT$2.1 trillion, the Ministry of Finance, which is part of the Executive Yuan, is the highest government entity responsible for implementing taxation policies and overseeing the leveling and collection of taxes. Taxation occurs at both the national and local government level, two broad categories of taxes exist at the national level, customs duties and inland taxes. Customs duties are administered by the Directorate-General of Customs, which has offices throughout the country. Five national tax administrations who are subordinate to the central government handle oversight of all inland taxes. Rather, taxes are governed by a series of laws and regulations related to a specific type of tax. As the chief legislative body, the Legislative Yuan plays an important role in formulating and revising tax related laws, the Income Tax Act is the primary law that governs individual income and profit-seeking enterprise income taxes. Both residents and non-residents are assessed individual income tax on Taiwan-sourced income unless an exception is provided in the Income Tax Act, individuals are considered residents of Taiwan for tax purposes if they are either domiciled there, or spend more than 183 days or longer in a taxable year. One major exception to this rule exists for non-residents who are present in Taiwan for less than 90 calendar days in a year. Taiwan has implemented a tax system for individual income taxes. For the 2011 tax year, the tax rates were as follows, By default, Income tax returns are due by May 31 of the following year, with no extension of time allowed. Taxpayers, including foreigners, are able to complete and file their tax return electronically through software provided by the taxing authority. All profit-seeking businesses in Taiwan are subject to the Profit-Seeking Enterprise Income Tax, sole proprietors and partners must file a return. However, their portion of the income is reported on their individual income tax return. In 2010, the top tax rate was reduced from 25% to 17%, therefore, the current profit-seeking enterprise tax rates are as follows, The amount of tax payable shall not exceed half of the amount of the taxable income in excess of NT$120,000. This tax is paid by sellers of Republic of China securities at a rate of 0. 3% of the proceeds from the sale of shares issued by companies. A rate of 0. 1% applies on the proceeds of corporate bonds, however. This tax is governed by the regulations set forth in the Securities Transaction Tax Act
13.
President of the Republic of China
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The President of the Republic of China is the head of state of the Republic of China and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. The ROC was founded in 1912, to all of China, however, after the ROC lost control of mainland China. The existing office of President was created in 1948 under the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China, the first president under the constitution was Chiang Kai-shek. Tsai Ing-wen succeeded Ma Ying-jeou on 20 May 2016 as the first female president in the nations history, 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 rule in China. The 1913 Constitution called for a presidential system with notable checks on the president by the National Assembly. However, Yuan soon began to assert dictatorial power, ignoring the National Assembly, 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 Shikais 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 and this presidency ended in 1928 when the Northern Expedition, led by the Kuomintang, succeeded in conquering North China. Sun Yat-sen established a 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, Sun, again expelled from Guangzhou in 1922, returned in 1923 to take the title of Generalissimo of the Military Government. The government was organized into five branches, with the Executive Yuan, headed by the premier, 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, 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 election in 1996. The president is 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 Republic of China Armed Forces. The president is responsible for conducting foreign relations, such as concluding treaties, declaring war, 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, the President can appoint Senior Advisors, National Policy Advisors and Strategy Advisors, but they do not form a council
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Tsai Ing-wen
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Tsai Ing-wen is a Taiwanese politician currently serving as the President of the Republic of China, commonly referred to as Taiwan. Tsai is the president from the Democratic Progressive Party. Tsai is also the first woman elected to the office and she is the incumbent chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party, and was the partys presidential candidate in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections. Tsai previously served as party chair from 2008 to 2012, Tsai graduated in law and was subsequently a university professor. After DPP President Chen Shui-bian took office in 2000, Tsai served as Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council throughout Chens first term as a non-partisan and she joined DPP in 2004 and served briefly as a DPP-nominated at-large member of the Legislative Yuan. From there, she was appointed Vice Premier under Premier Su Tseng-chang until the mass resignation in 2007. She was elected and assumed DPP chairpersonship in 2008, following her partys defeat in the 2008 presidential election and she resigned as chairperson after losing her 2012 presidential election bid. Tsai ran for New Taipei City mayorship in the November 2010 municipal elections but was defeated by former vice premier. Tsai was born in Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan on August 31,1956 and her given name, Ing-wen, could be translated as heroic literature or English language. During her middle school period, she studied in Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School and she studied law at the behest of her father. Upon her return to Taiwan, she taught law at the School of Law of Soochow University and National Chengchi University and she was also appointed to the Fair Trade Commission and the Copyright Commission. She served as consultant for the Mainland Affairs Council and the National Security Council and she also led the drafting team on the Statute Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau. In 2000, Tsai was given the appointment of chairperson of the Mainland Affairs Council. Confirming the widely held belief that she maintained Pan-Green sympathies, Tsai joined the Democratic Progressive Party in 2004 and she was subsequently nominated by the DPP to be a candidate in the 2004 legislative election and was elected as a legislator-at-large. On January 26,2006, Tsai was appointed to the post of president of the Executive Yuan. She concurrently served as chairwoman of the Consumer Protection Commission, on May 17,2007, Tsai, along with the rest of the cabinet of out-going Premier Su Tseng-chang, resigned to make way for incoming Premier Chang Chun-hsiung and his cabinet. Premier Chang named Chiou I-jen, the incumbent secretary-general of the Presidential Office to replace Tsai as vice premier and she then served as the chair of TaiMedBiologics, a biotechnology company based in Taiwan. The Kuomintang accused Tsai of contracting government work out to TaiMedBiologics during her term as premier, while planning to leave the government
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Vice President of the Republic of China
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The Vice President of the Republic of China is the second-highest executive official of the Republic of China. The existing office was created in 1948 under the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China, after the Kuomintang lost mainland China to the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, the government, along with its presidency, retreated to Taiwan. The Communist Party has since established the Peoples Republic of China on the mainland, chen Chien-jen is the current Vice President. In case the office of both the President and the Vice President should become vacant, the President of the Executive Yuan shall act for the President. In case the President should be unable to attend to office due to any cause, in case both the President and the Vice President should be unable to attend to office, the President of the Executive Yuan shall act for the President. After the Vice President succeeds as president, the office of Vice President remains vacant for the remainder of the term, until 1996, the vice president was elected by the National Assembly of the Republic of China. Two vice presidents have succeeded to the president upon the death of the president, yen Chia-kan became president in 1975 upon the death of President Chiang Kai-shek and Lee Teng-hui became president in 1988 upon the death of President Chiang Ching-kuo. Yen stepped down as president three years later in favor of Chiang Ching-kuo Another, Li Tsung-jen, formally acted as president from January 21,1949 to March 1,1950. President Chiang Kai-shek had resigned amid heavy losses during the Chinese Civil War, Chiang remained as Director-General of the Kuomintang and continued to give orders to the army as if he were in control. Chiang retreated to Chengdu and finally moved the government to Taiwan in December 1949, Li would nominally remain as vice president in absentia until 1954 until being impeached by the Control Yuan for failure to carry out duties due to illegal conduct. Due to the lack of formal power of the position. Standard of the Vice President of the Republic of China was instituted in Act of Ensign of the Republic of China Navy, the insignia was abolished with invalidation of the act on 3 January 1986. President of the Republic of China
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Executive Yuan
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The Executive Yuan is the executive branch of the central government of the Republic of China. It is headed by a president, and has a president, and twelve cabinet ministers, various chairpersons of commissions. The vice premier, ministers and chairpersons are appointed by the President of the Republic of China on the recommendation of the premier. Empowered by various laws, or even the Constitution, under the Executive Yuan Council several individual boards are formed to enforce different executive functions of the government, unless regulated otherwise, the chairs are appointed by and answer to the Premier. Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission Overseas Community Affairs Council There are, or would be, the chiefs of these five institutions would not be affected by any change of the Premier. However, the organic laws are currently under revision or dispute. The secretary-general and the deputy secretary-general of the Executive Yuan also attend, as well as heads of other Executive Yuan organizations by invitation, the Executive Yuan Council must present the Legislators with an annual policy statement and an administrative report. The Legislative Committee may also summon members of the Executive Yuan Council for questioning, the Executive Yuan may, in turn, ask the Legislators to reconsider. Afterwards, if the Legislative Council upholds the resolution, the premier must abide by the resolution or resign. The Executive Yuan Council may also present an alternative budgetary bill if the one passed by the Legislative Committee is deemed difficult to execute, politics of the Republic of China Government of the Republic of China Official website
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Premier of the Republic of China
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The President of the Executive Yuan, commonly known as the Premier of the Republic of China, is the head of the Executive Yuan, the executive branch of the Republic of China. The premier is appointed by the President of the Republic of China, before the establishment of the Executive Yuan in 1928, the premier of the Republic of China was created as Premier of Cabinet in 1912. It was changed to the Secretary of State in 1914 and Premier of State Council in 1916 in the Beiyang Government, in 1928, the Kuomintang Government established the Executive Yuan and Tan Yankai served as the first President of the Executive Yuan. The premier presides over the Executive Yuan Council, which makes up the official cabinet, the vice premier, ministers, and chairpersons of the Executive Yuan Council are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the premier. Laws and decrees promulgated by the President must also be countersigned by the Premier, in the event of vacancies in both the presidency and the vice presidency, the premier serves as Acting President of the Republic for up to three months. One-third of the Legislators may initiate a vote against the premier. If approved with majority, the premier must resign from office within ten days. If the motion fails, another motion against the same premier cannot be initiated for one year. This power has never been used, power shifted to Premier Chiang Ching-kuo after President Chiang Kai-sheks death but shifted to the presidency again when Chiang Ching-kuo became president. The first three premiers under Lee, Yu Kuo-hwa, Lee Huan, and Hau Pei-tsun were mainlanders who had initially opposed Lees ascension to power, the appointment of Lee and Hau were compromises by President Lee to placate the conservative mainlander faction in the party. The subsequent appointment of premier Lien Chan was taken as a sign of Lees consolidation of power, the established constitutional convention is that the premier is responsible to the President and does not have any responsibility to the legislature other than to report on his activities. However, the Pan-Blue Coalition has contended that Chens actions are unconstitutional and has proposed to name its own choice of premier and this has renewed calls for a constitutional amendment to better define the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of government. List of premiers of the Republic of China President of the Republic of China Politics of the Republic of China Elections in the Republic of China
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William Lai
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William Lai, also known by his romanised name Lai Ching-te, is a Taiwanese politician and the incumbent mayor of Tainan. He took office on 25 December 2010, after the municipality was created from the merger of Tainan City and he served as a legislator in the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2010. Lai then studied at the Harvard School of Public Health for a Masters degree in public health and he became an expert on spinal cord damage and served as a national consultant for such injuries. After serving as part of the team for Chen Ding-nans unsuccessful electoral bid for Governor of Taiwan Province in 1994. The next opportunity for election to a body was the 1996 National Assembly. Lai then joined the New Tide faction and stood as a candidate in the 1998 Legislative Yuan election and he was successful in this election, and subsequently was reelected three times in 2001,2004, and 2008. In total he served 11 years as a legislator, and was selected as Taiwans Best Legislator four times in a row by Taipei-based NGO Citizen Congress Watch. With the 2010 reorganization of the municipalities in Taiwan, Tainan City and Tainan County were amalgamated into a single municipality and he took office on 25 December 2010. In 2013 an opinion poll ranked Lai as the most popular of the 22 city and county heads in Taiwan, Lai stood for reelection on 29 November 2014 against Huang Hsiu-shuang of the Kuomintang. Lai, on the hand, did not plan many campaign activities. He eventually won the election by 45 percentage points, the largest margin of victory in any of the races in the election
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Legislative Yuan
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The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Taiwan. It is one of the five branches of government stipulated by the Constitution of the Republic of China, although sometimes referred to as a “parliament”, the Legislative Yuan, under Suns political theory, is a branch of government. According to the Judicial Yuan’s interpretation number 76 of the Constitution, starting with the 2008 legislative elections, drastic changes were made to the Legislative Yuan in accordance with a constitutional amendment passed in 2005. The Legislative Yuan has 113 members, down from 225, legislators are elected to office through the following ways,73 are elected under the first-past-the-post system in single-member constituencies. 34 are elected under the supplementary member system on a ballot, based on nationwide votes. 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 voters through single non-transferable vote in two three-member constituencies. Members serve four-year terms, with the 9th Legislative term serving from 1 February 2016, the 5 largest parties with 3 seats or more can form caucuses. If there are fewer than 5 such parties, legislators in other parties or with no party affiliation can form caucuses with at least 4 members, the previous legislature had 225 members. 8 were allocated for overseas Chinese and were selected by the parties on the basis of the proportion of votes received nationwide,8 seats were reserved for the aboriginal populations. The original Legislative Yuan was formed in the original Capital of Nanjing after the completion of the Northern Expedition and its 51 members were appointed to a term of two years. The 4th Legislative Yuan under this period had its members expanded to 194, 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 December 25,1947, six preparatory meetings had been held on May 8,1948, during which Sun Fo and Chen Li-fu were elected President and Vice President of the body. In 1949, the fell to the Communist Party and the Legislative Yuan was transplanted to Taipei. On February 24,1950,380 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 the Mainland 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 and 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, the body thus came to be called the Non-reelected Congress. Over the years, deceased members elected on the mainland were not replaced while additional seats were created for Taiwan starting with eleven seats in 1969
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Su Chia-chyuan
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Su Jia-chyuan is a Taiwanese politician of the Democratic Progressive Party. In 2010 he narrowly lost to Jason Hu in the election for Mayor of Taichung, Su was the vice-presidential candidate on the losing DPP ticket for the 2012 Presidential election. In 2016 legislative elections Su placed on the proportional representation ballot, Su was elected the eleventh President of the Legislative Yuan on 1 February 2016, when the members of the ninth Legislative Yuan met for the first time. Su became the first DPP speaker in the Legislative Yuan, Su was impeached by the Control Yuan on 3 September 2012, for illegally constructing a luxury farmhouse on agricultural land without engaging in any agriculture. Sus villa, built on land, was a controversial issue in the 2012 presidential elections
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Judicial Yuan
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Its Justices of the Constitutional Court, with 15 members, is charged with interpreting the Constitution. The President and Vice President of the Judicial Yuan are chosen from among the Honorable Justices by the President, eight of the grand justices, including the president and vice president of the Judicial Yuan, serve four-year terms, and the remaining Honorable Justices serve eight-year terms. Judicial Administrative Power of the Constitutional Court, there are currently 21 District Courts in the Taiwan Area, Each District Court may establish one or more summary divisions for the adjudication of cases suitable for summary judgment. The civil summary procedure is for cases involving an amount in controversys of not more than 300,000 New Taiwan dollar, currently there are a total of 45 divisions in Taiwan. Additionally, there is a Taiwan Kaohsiung Juvenile Court, established in accordance with the Law Governing the Disposition of Juvenile Cases, Each division has a Division Chief Judge who supervises and assigns the business of the division. Each District Court has a Public Defenders Office and a Probation Officers Office, a single judge hears and decides cases in ordinary and summary proceedings as well as in small claims cases. A panel of three judges decides cases of importance in ordinary proceedings as well as appeals or interlocutory appeals from the summary. Criminal cases are decided by a panel of three judges, with the exception of summary proceedings which may be held by a single judge, the Juvenile Court hears and decides only cases involving juveniles. The High Courts and its Branch Courts are divided into civil, criminal, Each Division is composed of one Division Chief Judge and two Associate Judges. Additionally, the High Court and its Branch Courts have a Clerical Bureau, Cases before the High Courts or its Branch Courts are heard and decided by a panel of three judges. However, one of the judges may conduct preparatory proceedings, the Supreme Court is the court of last resort for civil and criminal cases. The current administrative litigation system adopts a Two Level Two Instance System litigation procedure, the administrative courts are classified into the High Administrative Court, which is the court of first instance, and the Supreme Administrative Court, which is the appellate court. The first instance of the High Administrative Court is a trial of facts, the Supreme Administrative Court is an appellate court. Article 80 of the Constitution states that Judges shall be above partisanship and shall, in accordance with law, hold trials independently, furthermore, Article 81 states that Judges shall hold office for life. No judge shall be removed from office unless he has been guilty of an offense or subjected to disciplinary measure. No judge shall, except in accordance with law, be suspended or transferred or have his salary reduced
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Supreme Court of the Republic of China
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The court in Taiwan was originally established in 1896, the second year after Taiwan became a part of Japan. The Taiwan High Court at this era, can be considered to be the de facto Supreme Court in Taiwan, because the case cannot be further appealed to the Supreme Court in Tokyo. After the second war, Japan gave up its sovereignty on Taiwan. The Supreme Court of the Republic of China was originally established as the Dali Yuan in 1909. After the Chinese reunification, the government of the Republic of China renamed the Dali Yuan to the Supreme Court in 1927, on March 1949, the Court was moved to Canton with the Judicial Yuan. Shortly after in August 1949, the Court was moved to Taipei, Taiwan, originally it was located at Judicial Building at Chung-king South Road, but it was later moved to its current location on Chang-sha Street since 1992. The Organic Law of the Court states that the system shall be composed of the Supreme Court, High Courts. The Supreme Court is the court of last resort for civil, one thing special about the Supreme Court of Taiwan is that it has many chambers. Now there are 9 criminal chambers and 8 civll chambers, each consists of 5 judges, all the appeal cases are decided by these chambers. Because these chambers might have different opinions, the function of the Supreme Court to unify the construction of the law in the country is substantially diminished, in order to unify the opinions, judges in civil chambers and criminal chambers hold meetings regularly and make resolutions on legal questions. Those resolutions are not officially binding, but have de facto binding effect, Cases are forwarded to either the Civil Section or the Criminal Section, which will record the case according to the year, class of case, as well as order of receipt. The case is reviewed by the Rules for Initial Review of Civil, after review, if the Court finds the case is defective, it will send the case back to the original court or order the party to amend the defects. If the Court finds the case to be in form, the case is then sent to the Case Assignment Subsection. Cases before the Supreme Court are heard and decided by a panel of five judges, with the Division Chief Judge acting as the presiding judge and the chairperson in deliberation. The Court decides only issues of law, and must base its decision on the facts ascertained in the judgment of the court of second instance, an appeal may be made to the Court only on the grounds that the original judgment is in violation of law or order. Documentary review proceedings are the norm, but if necessary, the presiding justice hear oral arguments in which issues of law are debated. The Supreme Court has a President, who is of the special appointment rank and who is in charge of the affairs of the entire court. Official Website of the Supreme Court of ROC Taiwan Law Resources The Judicial Yuan The Ministry of Justice Taipei District Prosecutors Office Legislative Yuan Executive Yuan
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District Courts (Taiwan)
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In the law of the Republic of China, the District Courts are the ordinary trial courts of general jurisdiction. The civil summary procedure is for cases involving an amount in controversy of not more than 500,000 New Taiwan dollars, the small claims cases are cases demanding payment for less than 100,000 NTD. Currently there are a total of 45 divisions in Taiwan, additionally, there is a Taiwan Kaohsiung Juvenile Court, established in accordance with the Law Governing the Disposition of Juvenile Cases. Each division has a Division Chief Judge who supervises and assigns the business of the division, each District Court has a Public Defenders Office and a Probation Officers Office. A single judge hears and decides cases in ordinary and summary proceedings as well as in small claims cases, a panel of three judges decides cases of great importance in ordinary proceedings as well as appeals or interlocutory appeals from the summary and small claims proceedings. Criminal cases are decided by a panel of three judges, with the exception of summary proceedings which may be held by a single judge, the Juvenile Court hears and decides only cases involving juveniles. They said the people of all are innocent
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Examination Yuan
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The Examination Yuan is in charge of validating the qualification of civil servants in the Taiwan. It is one of the five government branches of the Government of the Republic of China, founded by Chinese nationalists at the beginning of the 20th century, the Examination Yuan is based on the old Imperial examination system used in Imperial China. After the end of Northern Expedition in 1928, the Nationalist Government set up the office of the Examination Yuan in October 1928 in which the organic law was promulgated. In May 1929, the headquarter of Examination Yuan was inaugurated at Kuankung, in January 1930, the Examination Yuan and its subordinates Examination Committee and Ministry of Civil Service were formally established. In December 1937, the headquarter was relocated to Chungking during the Second Sino-Japanese War, in January 1950, the headquarter was relocated temporarily to Taipei Confucius Temple in Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War. In December 1951, the headquarter was moved to Muzha District, in March 1990, the Yuheng Building of the Yuan was inaugurated
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Control Yuan
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The Control Yuan of Taiwan, one of the five branches of the Government of the Republic of China, is an investigatory agency that monitors the other branches of government. Control Yuan was established in February 1931 succeeding the role of Auditing Yuan, Auditing Yuan was subsequently downgraded to a ministry and incorporated into the Control Yuan. The council of the Yuan, chaired by the Yuan President, is divided into a number of committees to fulfill the Yuans various purposes. No member of the Control Yuan can hold another office or profession while serving in the branch. Members can vote in no more than three committees and can join additional committees as non-voting members, each committee can have up to 14 members and usually elects a convenor amongst themselves to chair committee meetings. Most of these also operated local and provincial branches to supervise local governments. Under the Qing dynasty, the Board of Public Censors consisted of forty or fifty members and they were, in theory, allowed to send one censor to participate in the meetings of all government boards. The Boards powers were minimized by the time of flux which preceded the end of the Empire. Following the establishment of the republican government, the traditional three branches were initially put in place. By 1928, however, the Control and Examination Yuans were established by the provisional government, a sixth Auditing Yuan was established in February 1928, but in February 1931, the Auditing Yuan was downgraded to the current Ministry of Audit and incorporated into the Control Yuan. Most branch offices of the Control Yuan were closed following the KMT evacuation to Taiwan from the mainland, in 1992, the selection process for the Control Yuan was reformed by constitutional amendment, with representative council elections being replaced by National Assembly confirmations. This was further reformed in 2000 by the replacement of the National Assembly with the Legislative Yuan for confirmation elections, at the end of 2004 President Chen Shui-bian sent a list of nominees to positions in the Control Yuan to the Legislative Yuan for approval. The Pan-Blue Coalition, which held a majority in the Legislative Yuan, refused to ratify President Chens nominees. The political deadlock that resulted stopped the Control Yuan from functioning from February 2005 to July 2008, following the election of President Ma of the Pan-Blue Coalition, the Legislative Yuan ratified a new list of members of the Control Yuan and Wang Chien-shien was appointed to be its President. Cai Yuanpei not inauguration Zhao Daiwen not inauguration Yu Youren Government of the Taiwan Politics of the Taiwan State Comptroller of Israel Censorate Official website
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Administrative divisions of Taiwan
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The administrative divisions of Taiwan consist of provinces and special municipalities. The provinces are streamlined, with little direct function. Each province is subdivided into provincial cities and counties. There are 6 special municipalities,3 provincial cities and 13 counties, in 1945, after the World War II, the Republic of China acquired Taiwan and Penghu from the Empire of Japan. In 1949, the government of the Republic of China led by Kuomintang lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to Taipei, the government lost almost its jurisdiction over mainland China, only some offshore islands remained. This history gives two different sources of the current Taiwanese administrative divisions on the Free area of the Republic of China or Taiwan Area, Island of Taiwan and Penghu, inherited from the divisions of Taiwan under the Empire of Japan. Kinmen and Matsu Islands, inherited from the divisions of mainland China under the Republic of China, since 1949, the government has made some changes in the area under its control. The two provincial governments were streamlined and much of their functions transferred to the central or county governments, Six special municipalities have been created on the territory belonged to Taiwan Province. Since 1998, most of the duties and powers of Taiwan Provincial Government have been transferred to the central government, the much smaller Fukien province, Fujian Provincial Government has been in streamlined form since 1956. There has been criticism of the current administrative scheme as being inefficient. Before 2008, the likelihood of consolidation was low, many of the cities had political demographics which were very different from their surrounding counties, making the prospect of consolidation highly politically charged. On 1 October 2007, Taipei County was upgraded to a quasi-municipality on the level as Kaohsiung City. This allowed the county to have the organizational and budgetary framework of a de jure municipality, Taichung County and Tainan City lobbied the central government for similar status. Taoyuan County was also upgraded to a quasi-municipality on 1 January 2011, under President Ma Ying-jeous administration, the central government has reorganized more counties and cities. Four mergers and promotions were approved in 2009 and became effective on 25 December 2010, currently there are three types and in total 22 administrative divisions are directly governed by the central government. Counties with population more than 2 million may grant some extra privileges in local autonomy that was designed for special municipalities and these 22 divisions are also regulated by the Local Government Act as local self-governance bodies. Each division has its own executive called city/county government and own legislature called city/county council, the city mayors, county magistrates and all legislators are elected by the people under its jurisdiction every four years. Geographically, Six special municipalities, three cities and 10 counties are on the main island of Taiwan Penghu County administers Penghu Islands
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Elections in Taiwan
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Elections in Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, are held on national and local level. On the national level, the head of state, the President, and all members of the national legislature, National elections were synchronized into a single day from 2012 and are held every four years. Local self-government bodies including special municipalities, counties, cities, townships, county-controlled cities, indigenous districts, the head as well as the legislators of the self-government bodies are all directly elected by the people who have registered their residency in the respective territory. Local elections were synchronized into a day from 2014 and are held every four years. Elections are supervised by the Central Election Commission, an independent agency under the central government, the minimum voting age is twenty years. Voters must satisfy a residency requirement before being allowed to cast a ballot. The government of the Republic of China, led by Kuomintang, in addition, the Martial law in Taiwan also set most actions of oppositions as illegal. From 1949 to 1990, the President was elected by the first National Assembly which had never been reelected since 1948, the Legislative Yuan had also never been reelected since 1947. The provincial Governor and municipal Mayors were appointed by the central government, the direct elections were only held in the local leaders lower than county level, and legislators lower than the provincial level. From the 1990s, a series of democratic and governmental reforms were implemented in Taiwan, Additional Articles of the Constitution were passed to grant full civil and political rights to the Taiwanese people. Under the Additional Articles, the President and the national legislators shall be directly elected, the first congressional elections on Taiwan were held in 1991 for National Assembly and 1992 for Legislative Yuan. The first election for provincial Governors and municipality Mayors was in 1994, most importantly, Taiwan held the first direct election of the President and Vice President in 1996. At the same time, the government also undertook to simplify the public sector, the provincial government was streamlined as a subsidiary of the central government in 1998 and no longer holds elections for the Governor and the provincial legislators since then. The regular National Assembly was ceased in 2000 and fully defunct in 2005, the number of members of the Legislative Yuan was reduced to 113 from 2008. In recent years, the government is working on synchronizing the date of the elections into two key dates, national elections and local elections. The national elections elect the President and Vice President as well as the 113 Legislators, the local elections elect 11,130 local officials who serve in self-government bodies. The full election list since the first direct election of the President and Vice President
28.
Central Election Commission (Taiwan)
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The Central Election Commission is the permanent statutory agency responsible for managing local and national elections in Taiwan. It is an important agency which carries out elections and enhances the democracy in the country and it is also charged with improving the election legal system, improve the quality of service, reinforce impartiality and independence. It has offices in all counties, cities, provinces and municipalities and it is headed by the Chairman of commissioners or Chief of Commissioners
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Taiwan presidential election, 1996
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Peng Ming-min The election of the ninth-term President and Vice-President of the Republic of China was the first direct presidential election in the history of the Republic of China. It occurred on 23 March 1996, in the previous eight elections the president and vice president had been chosen in a ballot of the deputies of the National Assembly, in accordance with the 1947 constitution. The outcome of the 1996 election was that Lee Teng-hui was elected as President, Lee stood as the incumbent, and as the candidate of the ruling Kuomintang. He won a majority of 54% of the votes cast and his election followed missile tests by the Peoples Republic of China. These were an attempt to intimidate the Taiwanese electorate and discourage them from supporting Lee, the ruling Kuomintang nominated president Lee Teng-hui in August 1995 at its 14th Party Congress after plans to institute a closed primary system by his opponents were thwarted. As his running mate, Lee chose Lien Chan, who had attempted to resign his position as Premier of the Republic of China to join Lees ticket, Lee did not accept Liens resignation, as Liens potential successors to the premiership stood little chance of legislative confirmation. After the election, the Judicial Yuan allowed Lien to keep both posts, hsu Hsin-liang, Lin Yi-hsiung, You Ching, and Peng Ming-min contended for this position. The seventy-two-year-old Peng emerged victorious and nominated legislator Frank Hsieh to be his running mate, Peng opposed trade with mainland China unless the PRC promised to treat Taiwan as an equal. However, Peng rejected reunification with the mainland outright, describing the notion as suicide, former Taiwan Provincial Governor Lin Yang-kang ran as an independent with former Premier Hau Pei-tsun as his running mate. After the pair registered as candidates, they were endorsed by New Party, both Lin and Hau were expelled from the Kuomintang on 13 December 1995. They supported the One-China Principle and favored opening direct links with the mainland and they argued that the KMT, led by Lee, had abandoned all attempts at unification. A second independent ticket consisted of former Control Yuan President Chen Li-an for President, Chen Li-an, the son of former Premier and Vice President Chen Cheng, used his Buddhist background and stressed moral purity and honest government. He walked for eighteen days wearing a straw hat to spread his views. Former Taipei mayor Kao Yu-shu declared an end to his candidacy in January 1996, feminist writer Shih Chi-ching also bid for the presidency, selecting Wu Yue-chen as her vice president. However, Shih and Wus campaign ended after the Judicial Yuan ruled against them, mudslinging was rampant between the remaining four presidential tickets. The KMT claimed that the Taiwanese mafia had amputated Pengs arm to recoup gambling debts, however, Peng had lost his arm in an American air raid on Nagasaki during World War II. Independent candidate Lin Yang-kang alleged that Lee Teng-hui had been a Chinese Communist Party member, which he denied at the time, the Kuomintangs website was also subject to cyberattacks. Chen Li-an criticized every other candidate for their advanced age, from March 8 to March 15, the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army sent ballistic missiles within 25 to 35 miles off the ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung
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Taiwan presidential election, 2000
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The second ever direct presidential election was held in Taiwan on March 18,2000, to elect the 10th-term President and Vice-President of the Republic of China under the 1947 Constitution. With a voter turnout of 82. 69%, Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu of the Democratic Progressive Party were elected president and this put an end to more than half a century of Kuomintang rule on Taiwan. The ruling Kuomintang ran Vice President Lien Chan for President and Premier Vincent Siew for Vice President, both were career civil servants and Lien, originating from the Taiwanese aristocracy, was seen as aloof and unable to empathize with the common people. Though more popular and consistently ranked higher in the polls, the outspoken former Taiwan Governor James Soong failed to gain the Kuomintangs nomination, as a result, he announced his candidacy as an independent candidate. The Kuomintang responded by expelling Soong and 21 of his allies in November 1999, Soong, a mainlander, tried to appeal to the native Taiwanese by nominating pro-independence surgeon Chang Chao-hsiung as his running-mate. In December 1999, the KMT began to attack Soongs integrity, Soong defended himself by saying he was acting under Lees direction, but his story was largely unpersuasive. Initially holding a lead in the polls, Soong lost by just over 300,000 votes. The Democratic Progressive Party ran former Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian and Taoyuan County magistrate Annette Lu for vice president. Having run for the 1996 election on a radical independence platform and lost by a landslide, the resolution accepted the status quo and promoted the moderate view that Taiwan was already independent, so any formal declaration would not be urgently necessary, if at all. The last minute public endorsement of Chen Shui-bian by President of the Academia Sinica and Nobel laureate Yuan T. Lee and other opinion leaders is also thought to have played a role in his election. All independent presidential tickets were required to turn in a petition of 224,000 names to the Central Election Commission to confirm their candidacy, during the 2000 campaign, the Hsu-Chu ticket promoted reunification under one country, two systems and opposed a referendum on independence. The New Party nominated independent social commentator Li Ao—an acclaimed author, historian, Li, who supported one country, two systems, said he took the election as an opportunity to educate the people in Taiwan. All of the promised to work towards opening the Three Links. The Soong-Chang ticket appeared first on the ballot, followed by the Kuomintangs Lien and Siew, the eventual winning Democratic Progressive Party ticket of Chen and Lu were listed fifth. Chens victory was almost unthinkable before Soongs financial scandal broke out, Soong Chu-yus financial scandals, Nobel laureate Lee Yuan-tsehs endorsement, and arguably the last minute saber-rattling by the PRC tipped the balance to Chens favor. Lee promised to resign at the party congress in September 2000, though the protest was without permit and technically illegal, the government did not break it up and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou joined the crowd on the first night. The protesters blocked the entrances to the building and kept Lee holed in his office for hours until riot police with water cannon were able to open a path for the motorcade, protesters also dragged presidential advisor Hsu Li-teh out of his car and beat him. The protests ended in success on March 24 when Lee resigned as KMT Chairman and was replaced by Lien, on the same day, Soong announced the formation of the People First Party
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Taiwan presidential election, 2004
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A consultative referendum took place on the same day regarding relations with the Peoples Republic of China. Lien and Soong refused to concede and unsuccessfully challenged the results, in the months leading up to December 2003, there was speculation as to whether President Chen would choose Vice President Annette Lu as his running mate. After several weeks of public infighting between various factions of the DPP, Chen formally nominated Lu as his running mate on December 11. They were backed by the Pan-Green Coalition and this was partly responsible for the high number of invalid votes compared to the 2000 election. In February 2003, the KMT and PFP agreed to run a ticket representing the entire Pan-Blue Coalition with Lien Chan for president. The campaign emblem for the Lien-Soong campaign was a bicycle with a blue figure in the first seat. Additionally, it was thought to be difficult for the two men to agree upon who would run for president and who would run for vice president. Though Soong polled ahead of Lien in 2000 and was thought to be more charismatic than Lien. The PFPs poor showing in the 2001 legislative election may have played a role, initially, it was believed that the Lien-Soong ticket would be a sure win, given that both men garnered a combined 59. 9% of the vote in 2000. Although the political spectrum on Taiwan is defined in terms of Taiwan independence versus Chinese reunification, the theme of the Pan-Green Coalition was to portray themselves as Taiwanese nationalists and reformers and the opposition as corrupt and lacking in loyalty to Taiwan. The theme of the Pan-Blue Coalition was to question Chens competence, the Pan-Blue Coalition staunchly defended the existence of the Republic of China and also rejected reunification under one country, two systems. They also abandoned the Under the Roof of One China policy, the main issues in the campaign were relations with the Peoples Republic of China, political reform, and the economy. In addition, although they tend not be noticed by the press, local issues were important in the campaign. These issues varied from county to county but included funding for projects, the location of expressways. On the day of the election, each member of the electorate stamped one from the two choices of president/vice-president tickets on the ballot, since Taiwan does not provide absentee ballots, large numbers of Taiwanese expatriates living in North America and Mainland China returned to Taiwan to vote. Typical estimates indicate that about 20,000 people travelled from North America, most analysts believe that the voters from North America would be split evenly between the two candidates, but that those from Mainland China voted overwhelmingly for Pan-Blue. Polls indicated that Taiwan is split with about one-third identifying themselves as Pan-Blue, one-third identifying themselves as Pan-Green and they also show very little cross-party voting with over 90% of people who identify with one party group stating that they will vote for the party. Pan-Blue tends to do well among Mainlanders, Taiwanese aborigines, and they also have the support of people from age 30-50, among the very rich, and very poor, and among people from northern and eastern Taiwan
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Taiwan presidential election, 2008
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The election for the 12th-term President and Vice-President of the Republic of China was held in Taiwan on Saturday, March 22,2008. Kuomintang nominee Ma Ying-jeou won with 58% of the vote, ending eight years of Democratic Progressive Party rule, along with the 2008 legislative election, Mas landslide victory brought the Kuomintang back to power in Taiwan. This was the direct election for the President of the Republic of China. The two candidates were Democratic Progressive Party candidate Frank Hsieh and Kuomintang nominee Ma Ying-jeou, the KMT ticket was officially formed as of June 23,2007, with Ma announcing his choice for running mate to be former premier Vincent Siew. The DPP ticket was announced in August,2007, with Frank Hsieh selecting former Premier Su Tseng-chang, but much like previous elections, this election was also marked with island-wide mass rallies and much political mudslinging. The KMT ticket received a percentage and more votes than any other candidate in the previous three direct presidential elections. The election occurred as incumbent President Chen Shui-bians popularity remained at record lows following mass rallies in September 2006 urging him to resign amid implications of corruption. The election occurred in the wake of the KMTs landslide victory in the 2008 legislative elections in which the Pan-Blue Coalition won a majority in the Legislative Yuan. On the same day two referenda on joining the United Nations, the first supported by the DPP of President Chen, prior to the vote, the KMT had encouraged its supporters to boycott the DPP referendum, and expressed its understanding if supporters boycotted both. Candidates were to register with their respective parties March 5–9,2007, selection of candidates for President in Taiwan, unlike most other nations, were weighed. The actual primary election results accounted for 30% of the final outcome while public opinion polls accounted for the other 70%, final tallies were announced May 30,2007. All three of the men had served as premier under Chen Shui-bian and as DPP chairman during part of the Chen presidency. In addition, Hsieh has been a mayor of Kaohsiung, Su has been county magistrate of Taipei County and Pingtung County. On May 6,2007, the DPP primaries took place in all 24 cities and counties in Taiwan, there were 254,963 eligible voters, with voter turnout at 56. 06%. Former premier Frank Hsieh emerged as the winner of the DPP primaries, winning 17 of 24 cities and counties with 62,849 votes, the junior partner in the pan-green coalition, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, neither fielded nor endorsed a candidate. TSU Chairman Shu Chin-Chiang seemingly endorsed Ma on September 19,2007 when he referred to Ma as our President-to-be, at the same time, several TSU legislators stated that they would support DPP candidate Frank Hsieh. In December, Lee Teng-hui, considered the leader of the TSU, rescinded his support of Chen in 2004. While Lee openly denounced supporting the ruling DPP party, he stopped short of endorsing any party or candidate, Mas landslide victory over Wang in the 2005 KMT chairman election immediately made him the frontrunner
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Taiwan presidential election, 2012
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The election for the 13th-term President and Vice-President of the Republic of China was held in Taiwan on 14 January 2012. The election was held concurrently with legislative elections and it was the fifth direct election for the President of the Republic of China. Prior to 1996, the President was elected by the ROCs National Assembly, incumbent Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected as President with 51. 6% of the vote. DPP challenger Tsai Ing-wen resigned her post as chairperson of the DPP following her election defeat, the Kuomintang ticket won a landslide victory in 2008 over the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party, with a 2.2 million vote margin on 58% of the valid votes. One big election topic appears to be the 1992 consensus, a term describing the outcome of a meeting in 1992 between the semi-official representatives of mainland China and Taiwan. Instead, the DPP has advocated that a Taiwan consensus be produced in a way, by the legislature. Incumbent chairperson Tsai Ing-wen was the DPP nominee and she was designated the party’s candidate in April 2011 following a primary by opinion polls. Candidates for the DPP primary were Tsai, former premier Su Tseng-chang, former Vice President Annette Lu Hsiu-lien announced her intention to run but withdrew. On 9 September 2012 candidate Tsai chose DPP secretary-general Su Jia-chyuan as her running mate, incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou was standing for re-election. There were no challengers within the party, so no primary was necessary, Vice President Vincent Siew chose not to run for a second term, and on 19 June 2011 President Ma selected Premier Wu Den-yih as his running mate. Mas campaign was run by King Pu-tsung, a former party Secretary-General, PFP chairman James Soong Chu-yu launched the partys first-ever Presidential bid on 20 September 2011. Soong had stated, however, that his candidacy is contingent on the success of a nationwide million signature drive and he has vowed to run and keep his candidacy active through the election if his campaign garners one million signatures throughout Taiwan. Soong chose National Taiwan University professor emeritus Lin Ruey-shiung, a career scientist and academic with no political experience, after initially trailing, Ma started to pick up the lead, without Soong as a candidate, after September,2011 in most opinion polls. However, Tsai benefited from the debates in the later stages, voting took place between 8,00 and 16,00 local time at 14,806 polling stations. After Mas re-election, he announced that his victory had vindicated his policies in regards to cross-strait relations, Tsai conceded the election and resigned from her position as head of the DPP. Turnout was reported to be over 74%, Ma Ying-jeou and Wu Den-yih were inaugurated as the President and Vice President of Taiwan respectively at the Presidential Office Building on 20 May 2012. It added by wishing all the success in working towards greater peace and prosperity. Elections in Taiwan 2012 Presidential Election Press Kit, Government Information Office,5 January 2012 Interview With Tsai Ing-wen New York Times
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Taiwan general election, 2016
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The Democratic Progressive Party, led by Tsai, also secured a majority in the Legislative Yuan, resulting in the first majority by a non-KMT party and the first majority won by the DPP. The Central Election Commission reported that turnout for the election was 66. 27% of voters. Presidential candidates and vice-presidential running mates are elected on the same ticket, due to constitutional two-term limits, incumbent president Ma Ying-jeou was ineligible to seek re-election. This was the direct election of the president and vice president by the citizens of Taiwan. A record-breaking 556 candidates ran for legislative seats, parties fulfilling this criteria in this election include the Democratic Progressive Party, Kuomintang, People First Party and Taiwan Solidarity Union. According to internal party protocols, presidential primaries are conducted via nationwide opinion polling, registration was held between 2 and 16 February 2015. Tsai was duly nominated by the DPP on 15 April 2015, on 16 November 2015, Tsai Ing-wen announced former health minister Chen Chien-jen as her running mate, who consequently resigned from his post as deputy director of Academia Sinica. According to internal party protocols, presidential primaries are conducted via a combination of party member vote with 30% weighting, registration and petitions were conducted between 20 April to 18 May 2015. Two candidates, including Hung Hsiu-chu, deputy speaker of the Legislative Yuan, Hung garnered 35,210 signatories in her petition, crossing the eligibility threshold of 15,000 signatories, while Yang garnered only 5,234 signatories, nullifying his candidacy. The party member vote was suspended because Hung was the eligible candidate. Nationwide opinion polling were conducted from 12 to 13 June 2015, Hung garnered an average of 46. 204% in the nationwide polling, crossing the eligibility threshold of 30%, and was nominated on 19 July 2015. However, her nomination was revoked by party chair Eric Chu during a party convention on 17 October 2015. Chu subsequently replaced Hung as the candidate of the KMT. Some have alleged that this process was undemocratic, james Soong, party chair of the PFP, announced his presidential bid on 6 August 2015. He announced Minkuotang chair and legislator Hsu Hsin-ying as his mate in November 2015. Nori Shih, former legislator and chair of the Democratic Progressive Party, however, due to the failure to collect sufficient signatories on his petition, he withdrew his candidacy on 16 September 2015. However, despite initially registering at the election commission, Hsu and her running mate, Hsia Han-ren did not submit their petition. Independent candidates Lan Hsin-kei and Chu Hsu-fang, also registered at the election commission
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