Republic of China

The Republic of China (Chinese language: 中華民國), also known as China, is a state in East Asia. Describe national borders.

The Republic of China was officially founded after the Forty-Eight Revolution (辛亥革命) in Mo-chiang on October 9 – 10, 1911. After the ruling Manchu or Tartar dynasty abdicated in favour of the Republic, it was briefly united under the Nanking government until a new government was formed by Yuan Shih-kai in Peking in 1912. Yuan attempted to declare himself emperor, while most of the provinces opposed him, and after his death the country was embroiled in civil war. The country was again united in 1928 under a one-party dictatorship by the Kuomintang or Nationalist Party under the pretext of a guided democracy. One-party rule officially ended with the enactment of the 1947 constitution.

After

Administrative divisions

The Republic of China is officially divided into 21 provinces, 13 special municipalities, and 2 territories. The provinces are further divided into 97 prefectures, 879 municipalities, and 55,720 townships.

First-level subdibisions of China

21 provinces (18 governed wholly or partly)
Kiang-su 江蘇	Che-kiang 浙江	Shan-tung 山東	Shan-si 山西	Ho-pei 河北	Ho-nan 河南
San-si 陝西	Hu-pei 湖北	Hu-nan 湖南	An-hui 安徽	Kiang-si 江西	Fukien 福建
Taiwan 臺灣	Kwang-tung 廣東	Kwang-si 廣西	Szechuan 四川	Yun-kwei 雲貴	Sinkiang 新疆
Fong-tien 奉天	Chilin 吉林	He-lung-kiang 黑龍江
13 special municipalities (10 governed wholly)
Nanking 南京	Peking 北平	Hankou 漢口	Si-an 西安	Kwangchow 廣州	Chungking 重慶
Shanghai 上海	Tientsin 天津	Tsingtao 青島	Taipei 臺北	Ta-lien 大連	Harbin 哈爾濱
Shenyang 瀋陽
2 territories
Mongolia 蒙古	Tibet 西藏

After the Warlord Era, the Nanking-based National Government reversed course on a policy of shrinking and splitting provinces and instead began to merge or enlarge them. It seems a desire to ensure ethnic Han majority in each province best explains the policy, though the official policy attributes these mergers to encouragement of economic development by putting less developed areas and major cities together. As a result, the Jehol and Syue-yuen provinces were merged into Ho-peh, Chahar back into Shan-si, and Ning-hsia and Tsing-hai into Kan-su in 1945. Then the enlarged Kan-su was merged with San-si Province in 1948, creating the largest province in China.

The provinces of Fong-tien, Chilin, and Heh-lung-kiang have been under the administration of the Korean Empire since the end of the war, and centrally there is a Northeast Regional Executive Authority (東北行政長官公署) managing residual affairs (like resettlement in the interior) remotely. Parts of Ho-peh, Szechuan, Shan-si, and San-si are under the Chinese Soviet Republic and the People's Democratic Chinese Soviet Republic. There are thus 19 provinces that are fully or partly under the administration of the Chinese central government.

The territories of Mongolia and Tibet possess central government-like autonomy in matters save for foreign affairs and defence. Their legal systems are also customary and peculiar to them. The central government's Mongolia Office (蒙古委員會) and Tibet Office (西藏委員會) are responsible for liaising with the respective territorial governments. China had accepted the independence of Mongolia in 1946 but recanted this in 1951, following a non-objection letter from the USSR; legally, Mongolia's independence is considered void ab initio in China.

Government and politics

Central government

National Assembly

At the basic level, the Republic of China is a unitary republic where the National Constituent Assembly or National Assembly, elected every six years, represents the whole nation and possesses unlimited authority to legislate; however, as the country functions under a written constitutional law, the National Assembly's role is normally restricted to electing the President and Vice President, as well as confirming occasional plebescites. The National Assembly's role is further restricted by the constitutional convention that a constitutional amendment can only be voted upon after the National Assembly is next re-elected, and an amendment cannot be submitted during the last six months of a National Assembly term; this means there is at least a six-month "thinking period" before the assembly is re-elected and the constitutional amendment voted upon.

President

Elected every six years, the President is the largely-ceremonial head of state who represents the Republic of China diplomatically and sends missions. While the powers to sign treaties, promulgate laws and ordinances, appoint and remove officials, confer honours, declare war and peace, grant amnesties and pardons, as well as the status of the commander-in-chief of land, sea, and air forces are all assigned to the President, these can only be exercised with the countersignature of the Prime Minister or with a resolution of the Legislative Yuan (in the case of signing a treaty, which has the same force of a domestic law, or declaring war). The President is immune to criminal prosecution during the term of their office insofar as his official actions are concerned. At the point of election, the President must be fully 40 years of age.

The President, however, does have certain reserve powers granted by the constitution. Article 40 grants the President the power to issue emergency ordinances in the event of a severe disaster or threat, when the Legislative Yuan is prorogued. A draft is submitted by the Executive Yuan, but the President has the discretionary power to refuse to sign the ordinance, because they are, effectively, standing in for the Legislative Yuan temporarily while it is prorogued. The President under Article 49 has power to convoke a conference between branches in case of a persistent disagreement and then to decide upon a solution; this power has never fully been exercised, though conferences have been convoked. It is thought that this power should become dormant after political conventions become established.

The Vice President does not possess independent powers and stands in for the President when the latter is incapacitated or under the process of impeachment or recall. In case the President has died, is impeached, or is recalled from office, the Vice President automatically becomes President after taking the oath of office. The office of Vice President then stands vacant until the next Vice President is elected at the following election.

If both the President and Vice President are incapacitated, the Prime Minister shall stand in for the President; however, in this case, their official acts shall be countersigned by the President of the Legislative Yuan rather than themselves.

Executive Yuan

The Republic of China has a revised parliamentary system where the Executive Yuan, led by the Prime Minister or Premier, is politically responsible to the Legislative Yuan, which is directly elected every three years. Since the Legislative Yuan has power to confirm the Prime Minister designate, and to ensure continuity of government, the President is bound to appoint the person most likely to command the support of the Legislative Yuan. However, unlike a parliamentary system, the executive has a weak veto power (which can be overriden with a simple rather than super majority after six months), cannot dissolve the legislature prematurely, and also are not elected legislators themselves.

The executive power is collegiate, vested in a Cabinet (operating on a consensus basis) rather than the Prime Minister individually. A Cabinet resolution is required to exercise most executive functions. The Cabinet, regulated by Article 58, consists of the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, heads of executive departments, and ministers without portfolio. Provincial Premiers and the Mayors of Special Municipalities are also observers at the Central Cabinet.

As an extralegal measure in the interest of national cohesion, the Prime Minister also convokes a twice-yearly Chief Executive Conference for the Premiers of Provinces and Mayors of Special Municipalities. In practice, this assembly is also politically important, and the central government has held local governments responsible for their commitments expressed here.

The Deputy Prime Minister under Article 64 stands in for the Prime Minister when the latter is incapacitated or is under a process of impeachment. There is no law stating that the Deputy Prime Minister cannot also be a head of an executive department, and this is usually the case. Yet it is the opinion of the Supreme Court that, when the President's action is to be countersigned by both the Prime Minister and the responsible Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister standing in for Prime Minister cannot both sign for the Prime Minister and sign as the responsible Minister, since this compromises the collective form of government; however, the Court has not provided who should sign as the responsible Minister in such a situation, since a Deputy Minister cannot sign for a Cabinet-rank Minister and it is not lawful for a Minister with a different portfolio to sign for one acting as Prime Minister.

Unlike the Vice President, the Deputy Prime Minister does not become Prime Minister automatically if the latter has died or is removed from office, and this is also not an established norm. If the President, Vice President, and the Prime Minister are all incapacitated, the Deputy Prime Minister will not stand in for the President, since the order of precedence in this case passes to the President of the Legislative Yuan first.

Examination Yuan

The Examination Yuan is introduced by the Founding Father Dr. Sun according to his distaste for the spoils system and idea that the nation's public service should be an impartial institution. To ensure such impartiality, he severed the personnel management of the public service from the executive power as a fourth branch of government. The Examination Yuan is consequently known as a glorified HR department.

The principal body of the Examination Yuan is the Civil Service Council, which is an advisory body and has few independent functions. It is authorized to present bills to the Legislative Yuan on matters relating to the recruitment, examination, ranking, management, remuneration, compensation, discipline, retirement, and welfare of public servants, though in practice it rarely does so without an initiative from the executive power. This is because the public services ultimately exist to implement government policy and is most shaped by the demands of government policy, which originates from the executive and legislative authorities.

Despite the English name of "Civil Service" Council, its jurisdiction does extend over the armed forces.

Control Yuan

The Control Yuan acts as an auditor and ombudsman for all levels of government and is indirectly elected by provincial legislatures. Each province is represented equally in the Control Yuan by three Comptrollers and each Special Municipality by one. The way Comptrollers are elected differs from province to province, with some permitting all residents to be candidates and others electing amongst provincial legislators only; amongst the latter, Comptrollers may or may not also vacate their seats in the Provincial Legislature.

The Control Yuan, when sitting in plene, holds the Central Government responsible for obedience to laws and good behaviour. It is authorized to subpoena records, compel witnesses to provide testimonies, and conduct other investigations for the discharge of its duties. It may put public officials on impeachment trial on matters relating to their official duties; if finding officials to have violated laws or to have failed to display good behaviour, the Control Yuan does not punish officials directly but has the authority to initiate judicial prosecution or refer relevant facts to the Examination Yuan.

When not sitting in plene, the country is into Circuits, where benches of the Control Yuan holds inquiries into the behaviour of local governments. The number of Circuits is adjusted regularly. Currently, there are eight circuits.

There was a prolonged dispute over whether the Control Yuan can exercise jurisdiction over judges, with many judges believing that the Control Yuan, being an elected institution, should not hold judges accountable for their official actions. However, the Control Yuan has consistently held that its jurisdiction extends over judges since it its actions are investigative rather than punitive, and if a judge were found derelict, they would not be punished by the Control Yuan directly. However, the Chief Justice Hsu opined in 1968, "Even the prospect of being hauled in front of Comptrollers and being examined publicly is, in some cases, enough to affect the outcome of a judge's decisions."

Local government

A two-tier form of local government, comprising of province and municipality, is provided for in the Constitution. According to it, a provinces and municipalities are to convoke constituent assemblies and ratify their respective basic laws. The constitution further envisions a presidential form of government, with directly-elected executives, at both the provincial and municipal levels, though in neither has this been permissible under the Basic Act of Local Government, which is a constitutional amendment and sets forth the permissible content of provincial and municipal basic laws.

Since the Basic Act is an amendment to the Constitution, it is not subject to change by ordinary legislation, though it has been amended several times. The 1947 Basic Act made considerable concessions in democratic representation and efficiency in the interest of stability and permitted indirectly-elected, appointed, and bicameral legislatures. Generally, these measures enhanced municipal councils' ability to control provincial politics, while municipal councils were often controlled by prominent or wealthy cliques well-connected to the central government.

The 1972 Basic Act made it mandatory for at least one chamber of the provincial legislature to be directly elected, and a further amendment in 1975 curtailed the provincial government's power in suspending constitutional rights and liberties during natural disasters and other emergencies.

Defence

Provincial security forces

Owing to historical circumstance and geographic expansiveness, many provinces operate security forces, usually under a Department of Internal Security. These paramilitary forces may be lightly or heavily armed, with some provinces employing arsenals that are identical to that of the national military. The PDISes were considered part of the portfolio of the central Ministry of the Interior, though they also liaised with the Ministry of Defence and shared in military duties in the interior and coast guard functions on the coast. The personnel balance between the national military (the "khaki force") and provincial security forces (the "black force") was set at 1:1 in the 40s through 60s.

The maintenance of a provincial security force was mandatory for all provinces until 1971, when most of the interior provinces had agreed that such duty (and cost) should be borne by the central government. A provincial approach to security forces was found unsatisfactory usually because inter-provincial co-operation was difficult and because by the 1970s there were few threats justifying a highly-militarized (and costly) force to be funded by each province, at least in China-proper. Thus, in 1975, the eleven provinces of Shan-tung, Ho-pei, Ho-nan, Kiang-su, Che-kiang, An-hui, Fu-kien, Kwang-tung, Kiang-hsi, Hu-nan, and Hu-pei reformed their Security Command to have a far more restricted and specialized role, usually as back-up for local police.

Taiwan Department of Internal Security was particularly longlasting and remained the island's principal armed force until 1998, since the central Ministry of Defence repeatedly delayed the inclusion of Taiwan into the national defence structure owing to cost.