National Assembly (Republic of China) - Reforms in The 1990s

Reforms in The 1990s

As a result of this decision, the same National Assembly, elected in 1947, remained until 1991, when as part of a constitutional ruling a Second National Assembly was elected.

Originally, the National Assembly elected the President and Vice President of the Republic of China. A subsequent constitutional amendment abolished this role and established direct popular elections for the two offices. Most of its other former functions, such as hearing the president's State of the Nation Address and approving the president's nominations of the grand justices and the heads of the Examination and Control Yuans, are now the functions of the Legislative Yuan.

After the 1991 passage of constitutional reforms, there was strong objection to the new form of the Assembly, which had essentially become a permanent constitutional convention, and was derisively called the "ten-thousand-year Congress" (萬年國會) by critics. Because of this, in 2000 the National Assembly was suspended. From 2000 to 2005, the 300 assembly members were selected ad hoc on the basis of proportional representation by a special election within six months of proposal by the Legislative Yuan to amend the Constitution, impeach the president or vice president, or change national borders.