President of the Republic of China


The president of the Republic of China, also known as the president of Taiwan, is the head of state of the Republic of China, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. Before 1949 the position had the authority of ruling over mainland China, but losing control of it after communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, the remaining jurisdictions of the ROC have been limited to Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and smaller islands.
Originally elected by the National Assembly, the presidency was intended to be a ceremonial office with no real executive power because the ROC was originally envisioned as a parliamentary republic. Since the 1996 election however, the president has been directly elected by plurality voting to a four-year term, with incumbents limited to serving two terms. The current president is Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party, preceded by Tsai Ing-wen from the same party.

Qualifications

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

    Powers

The president is currently elected for a term of four years by a plurality voting direct election of areas administered by the Republic of China. Before 1991, the president was selected by the National Assembly of the Republic of China for a term of six years.
The Constitution of the Republic of China names the president as head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. The president is responsible for conducting foreign relations, such as concluding treaties, declaring war, and making peace. The president must promulgate all laws and has no right to veto, but can approve or decline a veto proposed by the Executive Yuan. Other powers of the president include granting amnesty, pardon or clemency, declaring martial law, and conferring honors and decorations.
The president may, by resolution of the Executive Yuan Council, issue emergency decrees and take all necessary measures to avert imminent danger affecting the security of the state or of the people or to cope with any serious financial or economic crisis. However, such decrees shall, within ten days of issuance, be presented to the Legislative Yuan for ratification. Should the Legislative Yuan withhold ratification, said emergency decrees are rendered invalid.
The president may, within ten days following passage by the Legislative Yuan of a no-confidence vote against the premier, dissolve the Legislative Yuan after consulting with its president. However, the president may not dissolve the Legislative Yuan while martial law or an emergency decree is in effect. Following a dissolution of the Legislative Yuan, an election for legislators must be held within 60 days.
The president can also appoint senior advisors, national policy advisors and strategy advisors, but they do not form a council.
The Constitution does not clearly define whether the president is more powerful than the premier, as it names the Executive Yuan as the "highest administrative authority" with oversight over domestic matters, while giving the president powers as commander-in-chief of the military and authority over foreign affairs. Prior to his election as president in 1948, Chiang Kai-shek had insisted that he be premier under the new Constitution, while allowing the presidency be reduced to a figurehead role. However, the National Assembly overwhelmingly supported Chiang as president and once in this position, Chiang continued to exercise vast prerogatives as leader, and the premiership served to execute policy, not make it. Thus, until the 1980s, power in the Republic of China was personalized rather than institutionalized, which meant presidential power depended largely on who occupied the office. For example, Yen Chia-kan was a mostly ceremonial president, with real power in the hands of Premier Chiang Ching-Kuo, who carried said power with him to the office of president. After President Lee Teng-hui succeeded Chiang as president in 1988, the power struggle within the KMT extended to constitutional debate over the relationship between the president and the premier. The first three premiers under Lee were mainlanders who had initially opposed Lee's ascent to power. The appointments of Lee Huan and Hau were compromises by President Lee to placate KMT conservatives. The subsequent appointment of the first native Taiwanese premier, Lien Chan, was seen as Lee consolidating power. Moreover, during this time the power of the premier to approve the presidential appointments, and the power of the Legislative Yuan to confirm the president's choice of premier, were removed. This established the president as the more powerful official.
After the 2000 election of Chen Shui-bian as president, the presidency and Legislative Yuan were controlled by different parties, which brought forth a number of latent constitutional issues, such as the role of the Legislative Yuan in appointing and dismissing a premier, the right of the president to call a special session of the Legislative Yuan, and exactly who has the power to call a referendum. Most of these issues have been resolved through inter-party negotiations.

Succession

The Constitution of the Republic of China gives a short list of persons who will succeed to the presidency if the office were to fall vacant. According to the Additional Articles of the Constitution, Article 2:
As no president of the Executive Yuan has ever succeeded to the presidency under these provisions, it is untested whether, should the office of the premier be vacant as well, whether, pursuant to the Additional Articles, Article 3, the vice president of the Executive Yuan, who would be acting premier, would act as president. There is currently no constitutional provision for a succession list beyond the possibility that the vice president of the Executive Yuan might succeed to the presidency.
Assuming that the vice president of the Executive Yuan would be third in line for the presidency, the current line of succession is:
  1. Hsiao Bi-khim, Vice President of the Republic of China.
  2. Cho Jung-tai, President of the Executive Yuan.
  3. Cheng Li-chun, Vice President of the Executive Yuan.
Presidential succession has occurred three times under the 1947 Constitution:
  1. President Chiang Kai-shek declared incapacity on 21 January 1949 amid several Communist victories in the Chinese Civil War and was replaced by Vice President Li Zongren as the acting president. However, Chiang continued to wield authority as the director-general of the Kuomintang and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. Li Zongren lost the ensuing power struggle and fled to the United States in November 1949. Chiang evacuated with the government to Taiwan on 10 December 1949 and resumed his duties as the president on 1 March 1950.
  2. President Chiang Kai-shek died on 5 April 1975 and was replaced by Vice President Yen Chia-kan, who served out the remainder of the term.
  3. President Chiang Ching-kuo died on 13 January 1988 and was replaced by Vice President Lee Teng-hui, who served out the remainder of the term and won two more terms on his own right.

    Diplomatic protocol

The diplomatic protocol regarding the President of the ROC is rather complex because of the political status of Taiwan. In the nations that have diplomatic relations with the ROC, the president is accorded the standard treatment that is given to a head of state. In other nations, the president is formally a private citizen, although even in these cases, travel usually meets with strong objections from the People's Republic of China.
The president of ROC has traveled several times to the United States, formally in transit to and from Central America, where a number of countries do recognize the ROC. This system allows the president to visit the United States without the US State Department having to issue a visa. During these trips, the president is not formally treated as a head of state, does not meet US government officials in their official capacities, and does not visit Washington, D.C. However, in these visits, the ROC president invariably meets with staff members from the US government, although these visits are with lower-ranking officials in non-governmental surroundings.
In the area of Southeast Asia, the ROC president was able to arrange visits in the early 1990s which were formally private tourist visits. However, these have become increasingly infrequent as a result of PRC pressure.
At the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit, the ROC president is forbidden from attending personally, and must send a special envoy to represent them at the event.
However, on 2 December 2016, US President-elect Donald Trump accepted a congratulatory telephone call from the ROC president, a clear break from prior protocol.
The Chinese Communist Party, the Government of the People's Republic of China and its media all use the terms Leader of the Taiwan Area, Leader of the Taiwan Region and Leader of the Taiwanese Authorities to describe Taiwan's head of state. These terms are used by the media in the People's Republic of China to reflect the PRC's official stance of not recognizing the legitimacy of Taiwan as a country, or of Two Chinas. If the official title cannot be avoided in a news article, quotation marks would be used around terms for all official ROC positions and organizations.