President of the Republic of China

The President of the Republic of China (中華民國總統) is the head of state of the Republic of China, the government which administered Mainland China from 1912 to 1949 and has administered Taiwan and several outlying islands from 1945 until the present. Outside of Taiwan, the President of the ROC is commonly referred to as the "President of Taiwan" (台灣總統). This usage is actually \nrather uncommon on Taiwan itself, as members of the pan-blue coalition dislike the term because it implies separation from the concept of China, while members of the pan-green coalition, even those who support Taiwan independence, generally regard calling the office President of Taiwan needlessly provocative. For its part, the People's Republic of China refuses to formally recognize the office as president at all, and in official statements the PRC either places the term president in quotess or more commonly refers to the office holder as leader of the Taiwan authorities. The President is currently selected by a first past the post direct election of the areas administered by the Republic of China for a term of four years. Before 1991, the President was selected by the National Assembly of the Republic of China for a term of six years. Until the 1980s power in the Republic of China was personalized rather than institutionalized which meant that the power of the President depended largely on who occupied the office. For example, during the tenure of Yen Chia-kan, the office was largely ceremonial with real power in the hands of the Premier of the Republic of China, Chiang Ching-Kuo, and power switched back to the presidency when Chiang became President. After 2000, and the election of Chen Shui-bian to the Presidency, the Presidency and the Legislative Yuan were controlled by different parties which brought forth a number of latent constitutional issues such as the role of the legislature in appointing and dismissing a Premier, the right of the President to call a special session of the legislature, and who has the power to call a referendum. Most of these issues have been resolved through inter-party negotiations.

List of Presidents

\n{| border=1 style="border-collapse: collapse;" align="center" width="100%"\n|-bgcolor="#cccccc"\n!President\n!Begin\n!End\n!Party\n!Terms\n|-\n|Chiang Kai-Shek\n|May 20, 1948 \n|January 21, 1949\n|KMT\n|Elected 1-5\n|-\n|Li Tsung-jen\n|January 21, 1949 \n|March 1, 1950\n|KMT\n|Acting\n|-\n|Chiang Kai-Shek\n|March 1, 1950 \n|April 5, 1975\n|KMT\n|see above\n|-\n|Yen Chia-kan\n|April 5, 1975 \n|May 20, 1978\n|KMT\n|Finished 5\n|-\n|Chiang Ching-kuo\n|May 20, 1978 \n|January 13, 1988\n|KMT\n|Elected 6-7\n|-\n|Lee Teng-hui\n|January 13, 1988\n|May 20, 2000\n|KMT\n|Finished 7; Elected 8-9\n|-\n|Chen Shui-bian\n|May 20, 2000\n|incumbent\n|DPP\n|Elected 10-11\n|} For Presidents before the enactment of the 1947 Constitution, see list of leaders of the Republic of China

Elections

\n*ROC presidential election, 1996\n*ROC presidential election, 2000\n*ROC presidential election, 2004 \n

Diplomatic Protocol

\nThe diplomatic protocol regarding the ROC President is rather complex because of\nthe anomalous political status of Taiwan. In the two dozen or so \nnations which recognize the ROC as a legitimate government, he is accorded the\nstandard treatment that is given to a head of state. In other nations, he\nis formally a private citizen, although even in these cases, travel usually meets\nwith strong objections from the People's Republic of China. In the case of the United States, the ROC President has travelled several\ntimes, formally in transit to and from Central America, which contains a number of\nnations which do recognize the ROC. This system allows the ROC President to visit\nthe United States without the State Department having to issue a visa. During these\ntrips, the ROC President is not formally treated as a head of state, does not meet \nofficially with U.S. government officials, and does not visit Washington D.C. In the case of southeast Asia, the ROC President was able to arrange visits in the early 1990's which were formally private tourist visits, however these have become increasingly\ninfrequent as a result of PRC pressure.

See also

\n*President of the People's Republic of China

External links

\n* Office of the President of the Republic of China \n