Republic of China presidential line of succession
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The Constitution of the Republic of China gives a short list of persons who will succeed to the presidency if the office of the President of the Republic of China were to become vacant. According to the Constitution, Chapter IV, Article 49:
- In case the office of the President should become vacant, the Vice President shall succeed until the expiration of the original presidential term. In case the office of both the President and the Vice President should become vacant, the President of the Executive Yuan shall act for the President; and, in accordance with the provisions of Article 30 of this Constitution, an extraordinary session of the National Assembly shall be convoked for the election of a new President and a new Vice President, who shall hold office until the completion of the term left unfinished by the preceding President. In case the President should be unable to attend to office due to any cause, the Vice President shall act for the President. In case both the President and the Vice President should be unable to attend to office, the President of the Executive Yuan shall act for the President.[1]
As no president of the Executive Yuan (also known as the Premier) has ever succeeded to the presidency under these provisions, the issue of whether he/she would hold the presidency only until a new president and a new vice president may be elected (which appears implied by the article) or whether he/she would hold the presidency for the rest of the term, is untested. It is further untested whether, should the office of the premier be vacant as well, whether, pursuant to Chapter V, Article 55, the vice president of the Executive Yuan (vice premier), who would be acting premier, would act as president.[2] There is currently no constitutional provision for a succession list beyond the possibility that the vice president of the Executive Yuan might succeed to the presidency.
Assuming that the vice president of the Executive Yuan would be third in line for the presidency, the current line of succession is:
- Annette Lu, Vice President of the Republic of China.
- Su Tseng-chang, Premier of the Republic of China
- Tsai Ing-wen, Vice Premier of the Republic of China
Presidential succession has occurred three times under the 1947 Constitution:
- President Chiang Kai-shek resigned on January 21, 1949 amid several Communist victories in the Chinese Civil War and was replaced by Vice President Li Tsung-jen as Acting President. However, Chiang continued to wield authority as Director-General of the Kuomintang and Commander of the National Revolutionary Army. Li Tsung-jen lost the ensuing power struggle and fled to the United States in November 1949. Chiang fled with the government to Taiwan in December 1949 and resumed his duties on March 1, 1950.
- President Chiang Kai-shek died on April 5, 1975 and was replaced by Vice President Yen Chia-kan who served out the remainder of the term.
- President Chiang Ching-kuo died on January 13, 1988 and was replaced by Vice President Lee Teng-hui who served out the remainder of the term and won two more terms on his own right.
