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Since the Constitution of the Republic of China was promulgated on December 25, 1947, the overall rebellion organiJed by the Chinese Communist Party occurred and to meet the needs of this special period, the temporary articles for the the period of mobilization for suppressing the Communist Rebellion were formulated by the National Assembly in accordance with the Constitution amendment procedure in the year 1948, for the purpose of carrying out the Constitution even during the the period of mobilization for suppressing the Communist Rebellion. In the past forty years, the Constitution, which has undergone amendments for several times, has always been able to not only maintain the constitutional government system but also adapted itself to meet the needs of special conditions, enabling the basis of the democratic constitutional government to develop stably in the process of hard strives. With the development of the political and social conditions, the people became more and more eager to participate in politics and restore the normal constitutional system, which has become a national agreement, especially since the year of 1988, when the government first allowed people to go to the mainland and visit their relatives, which gradually relieved the confrontatin conditions between both sides across the straits. Under the conditions when the national situations have changed to some extent, in order to meet the needs of the present political and social conditions, to readjust the Constitutional system, to change the Constitution clauses which have become out-of-dated and to carry out the system of constitutional governance has become a tendency in the age and a necessity in the interest of the people's welfare. For that reason, since Mr. President Li Denghui held the post as the eighth president, he actively impelled the innovation of the constitutional government for the purpose of laying down the permanent constitution for the democratic politics in our country.
The first step in constitutional government innovation was to amend the fundamental law of the state, providing supreme legal norms and resources for the reform of the system. And amending the Constitution should be the authority of the National Assembly. First, the second provisional session of the first National Assembly was convened in April, 1991, in which ten constitutional amendments were formulated and added to the Constitution of the Republic of China, aiming to promote the constitutional government innovation and abolish the temporary articles in a step-by-step manner. In May 1992, eighteen constitutional amendments were formulated to further promote the implementaion of democratic politics. In April, 1994, the fourth provisional meeting of the second National Assembly was convened, in which the original amendments were changed into ten constitutional amendments at the people's will, and some stipulations on the system of the Executive Yuan were amended, among which an important amendment was made to prescribe that president should be directly elected by all people in the free part of the Republic of China, being most able to implement the principle of popular sovereignty. In response to the needs in reality, in May 1997, the second session of the third National Assembly was convened, in which the original constitutional amendments were revised and added so as to form eleven constitutional amendments, which served to strengthen the governmental functions and to heighten the national competitive strength. The following is a brief overview of the process of the Constitutional amendments and the fruits arising from them.
(1) Constitutional Amendments Formulated in the First Constitutional Amending
In the year of 1990, it was decided jointly by the preparatory commission of the first National Assembly's annual meeting for this year and the directors' meeting of the National Sodality that "it is signed jointly to propose that a provisional meeting of the first National Assembly be summoned by the president before May 20, 1991, to carry out its authority to amend the Constitution for the purpose of maintaining the constitutional government system and promoting reforms in constitutional government."
According to the stipulations in Clause 30, Item 1, Article 4 of the Constitution, summoning of the provisional meeting requires two fifths of members' joint signatures to request president to summon it. At that time there were totally 623 members, two fifths of which was 250, while the number of members who signed reached 504, which satisfied the legally required due number. In response to the members' request, the second provisional meeting of the first National Assembly was ordered, by the president on February, 26, 1991, to be held on April 8, 1991.
After the second provisional meeting of the first National Assembly, 453 members such as Chen JianJhong, Kong Decheng, Chang Daomin, Zhu Shilie, etc signed a proposal that the draft of constitutional amendments should be submitted to the public for resolution. Then the constitutional amendments were made in the general meeting in accordance with the corresponding stipulations in the Constitution, the discussion rules of the National Assembly, etc. On April 22, 1991, ten constitutional amendments added to the Constitution were passed after three times' reading, to be publiciJed by the president, who ordered to publiciJe "Constitutional amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of China" on May 1, 1991.
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