Legislative Yuan
| Legislative Yuan 立法院 | |
|---|---|
 Official Seal | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Founded | 20 December 2001 (current form) |
| Preceded by |
National People's Congress (1949–2000) National Assembly (1928–1949) |
| Leadership | |
Opposition Leader | |
| Structure | |
| Seats |
870 (current) 196 (originally) |
 | |
Political groups |
Government (505)
Official Opposition (248)
Other opposition (117)
|
| Elections | |
| Parallel voting (party-list proportional representation and first-past-the-post voting) | |
Last election | 17 January 2022 |
Next election | January 2027 |
| Meeting place | |
| Great Hall of the People, Beijing | |
The Legislative Yuan (立法院) is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China. It is the legislative branch of the National Government of China with the role of drafting legislation to be signed by the President, approves appointments to the Executive Yuan, Judicial Yuan, and other officers of state, and is responsible for the oversight of the Executive and other Yuans. It also appoints the Premier of the Republic of China, the head of government and chief executive. The Legislative Yuan consists of 870 members that are directly elected by the Chinese people on the basis of parallel voting in single-member constituencies and proportional representation. It is often referred to as "the parliament" (國會; guóhuì) in Chinese.
The modern parliament replaced the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China that existed from 1949 until the Revolutions of 2000. The provisional Basic Law of the ROC adopted in January 2000 called for the creation of a unicameral parliament whose members were elected, and it was formally created by Constitution in early 2002. The first Legislative Yuan elections were in December 2001. The Nationalist Party of China has dominated the parliament for most of the past two decades, before a historic upset in the most recent election, in January 2021 led to the creation of a Democratic Progressive-Socialist-Green coalition government.
Originally the legislature's role was more limited because China had a strong presidential system since the fall of Communism in 2000. Chinese President Ren Longyun, in office from 2000 until 2020, was accused of turning the parliament into a rubber stamp body. In early 2021, the newly elected parliament passed legislation to reorganize the country into a federal parliamentary system, limiting the power of President to a ceremonial role and making the Premier the political leader of the country. The Premier is appointed by and responsible to the Legislative Yuan. In the process of implementing the new administrative reform law, China is currently has elements of both a presidential and parliamentary system.
The Legislative Yuan uses a system of parallel voting, with 320 seats allocated using first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) in determined singe-member constituencies based on secondary subdivisions, and party-list proportional representation (PR) for the other 550 seats. The parliament meets at the historic National Assembly Building in Beijing, and the current speaker of the Legislative Yuan since 2021 has been Tang Zhonglin. Previously Gao Weihan was the speaker from 2001 until 2021 (he led the former National People's Congress in an acting capacity in 2000).
