page_title: Constitution of the Republic of China
section_title: Drafting process
hierarchical_section_title: Constitution of the Republic of China / History / Drafting process
caption_attribution_description: English: Chungking Negotiation at 1946Bân-lâm-gú: 1946-nî tī Tiông-khìng ê tsìng-tī hia̍p-siong huē-gī. 1946年佇重慶的政治協商會議。
context_page_description: The Constitution of the Republic of China is the fifth and current Chinese constitution, ratified by the Kuomintang during the Constituent National Assembly session on December 25, 1946, in Nanjing, and adopted on December 25, 1947. Since 1949, the constitution, along with its Additional Articles, remains effective in ROC-controlled territories.
  Intended for the entire territory of the Republic of China as it was then constituted, it was never extensively nor effectively implemented due to the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War in mainland China at the time of the constitution's promulgation. The newly elected National Assembly soon ratified the Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion on May 10, 1948. The Temporary Provisions symbolises the country's entering into the state of emergency and granted the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China extra-constitutional powers.
  Following the ROC government's retreat to Taiwan on December 7, 1949, the Temporary Provisions together with martial law made the country an authoritarian one-party state despite the constitution. Democratization began in the 1980s.
context_section_description: The constitution was first 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. The constitution traces its origins to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The impending outbreak of the Chinese Civil War pressured Chiang Kai-shek into enacting a democratic Constitution that would end KMT one-party rule. The Communists sought a coalition of one-third Nationalists, one-third Communists, and one-third other parties, to form a government that would draft the new Constitution.  However, while rejecting this idea, the KMT and the CCP jointly held a convention at which both parties presented views.  Amidst heated debate, many of the demands from the Communist Party were met, including the popular election of the Legislative Yuan.  Together, these drafts are called the Constitutional Draft of the Political Convention (政協憲草). Professor John Ching Hsiung Wu, Vice-Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Commission, was the principle author of the text.
  The Constitution, with minor revisions from the latest draft, was adopted by the National Constituent Assembly session on December 25, 1946 in Nanjing, promulgated by the National Government on January 1, 1947, and the fifth and current Chinese constitution was officially went into effect on December 25, 1947. The Constitution was seen as the third and final stage of Kuomintang reconstruction of China. The Communists, though they attended the convention, and participated in drafting the constitution, boycotted the National Assembly and declared after the ratification that not only would they not recognize the ROC constitution, but all bills passed by the Nationalist administration would be disregarded as well.  However, due to their showing in the election (approx. 800 out of 3045 seats,) their boycott did not prevent the Assembly from reaching quorum and thus electing Chiang Kai-shek and Lee Tsung-jen as President and Vice President respectively.  Zhou Enlai challenged the legitimacy of the National Assembly in 1947 by asserting that the KMT hand-picked its members 10 years earlier, and thus the Assembly could not be the legal representatives of the Chinese people.
caption: Political Consultative Conference in Chongqing, latest draft of the constitution was discussed by different political parties including Kuomintang and Communist Party of China.
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