National Assembly (Republic of China)

National Assembly (Republic Of China)

The National Assembly (Chinese: 國民大會; pinyin: Guómín Dàhuì) refers to several parliamentary bodies that existed in the Republic of China. The National Assembly was originally founded in 1913 as the first legislature in Chinese history, but was disbanded less than a year later as President Yuan Shikai assumed dictatorial power. During the warlord era, the National Assembly was resurrected and disbanded more than once as different warlords vied for power and legitimacy. The last continuous National Assembly was established under the framework of the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China as a constitutional convention and electoral college and called into place in 1948. It was transplanted to Taiwan in 1949 after the Kuomintang (KMT) lost mainland China in the Chinese Civil War. In the 1980s and 1990s, its parliamentary powers were gradually transferred to the Legislative Yuan before constitutional amendments made it a dormant body in 2000 and fully defunct in 2005.