The Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法) is the fundamental law of the Republic of China (ROC), which currently controls the island of Taiwan and minor outlying islands. It was Adopted by the National Constituent Assembly on 25 December 1946, and went into effect on 25 December 1947. This made China (with approx. 450 million people) the most populous democracy in the world. The latest revision to the constitution was in April 2000.
Drafted by the Kuomintang (KMT) as part of its third stage of national development (i.e., representative democracy), it established a centralized Republic with five branches of government. Though the Constitution was intended for the whole of China, it was neither extensively nor effectively implemented as the KMT was already fully embroiled in a civil war with the Communist Party of China by the time of its promulgation.
Following the KMT's retreat to Taiwan in 1949, the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion("Temporary Provisions" for short) gave the KMT government extra-constitutional powers. Despite the Constitution, Taiwan was an authoritarian one-party state. Democratization began in the 1980s. Martial law was lifted in 1987; and the Temporary Provisions were repealed and the Constitution was amended in 1991 to reflect the government's loss of mainland China, and the Constitution finally formed the basis of a multi-party democracy.
During the 1990s and early 2000s (decade), the Constitution's origins in mainland China led to supporters of Taiwan independence to push for a new Taiwanese Constitution. However, attempts by the Democratic Progressive Party administration to create a new Constitution during the second term of DPP President Chen Shui-bian failed, because the then opposition Kuomintang controlled the Legislative Yuan. 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.
Read more about Constitution Of The Republic Of China: History, Content, Referendums and Constitutional Reform
Famous quotes containing the words constitution of, constitution, republic and/or china:
“Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.”
—Charles Darwin (1809–1882)
“If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.... The flag and the Constitution stand for democracy and not tyranny, for freedom, not subjection.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“It was the most ungrateful and unjust act ever perpetrated by a republic upon a class of citizens who had worked and sacrificed and suffered as did the women of this nation in the struggle of the Civil War only to be rewarded at its close by such unspeakable degradation as to be reduced to the plane of subjects to enfranchised slaves.”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)
“Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
Or some frail china jarreceive a flaw,
Or stain her honour, or her new brocade,”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)