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The [[Constitution of the Republic of China]] did not originally define strictly the relation between the premier and the president of the Republic and it was not clear whether the government would lean towards a [[presidential system]] or [[parliamentary system]] when divided. Power shifted to Premier [[Chiang Ching-kuo]] after President [[Chiang Kai-shek]]'s death but shifted to the presidency again when Chiang Ching-kuo became president. After President [[Lee Teng-hui]] succeeded Chiang as president in 1988, the power struggle within the Kuomintang extended to the constitutional debate over the relationship between the president and the premier. The first three premiers under Lee, [[Yu Kuo-hwa]], [[Lee Huan]] and [[Hau Pei-tsun]], were [[waishengren|mainlander]]s who had initially opposed Lee's ascension to power. The appointment of Lee and Hau were compromises by President Lee to placate the conservative mainlander faction in the party. The subsequent appointment of premier [[Lien Chan]] was taken as a sign of Lee's consolidation of power. Moreover, during this time, the power of the premier to approve the president's appointments and the power of the Legislative Council to confirm the president's choice of premier was removed (out of fears that the [[Democratic Progressive Party]] would one day gain control of the legislature), clearly establishing the president as the more powerful position of the two.
The relationship between the premier and the legislature again became a contentious issue after the [[2000 Republic of China presidential election|2000 Presidential election]], which led to the election of the Democratic Progressive Party's [[Chen Shui-bian]] to the presidency, while the legislature remained under a Kuomintang-led-Pan-Blue majority. Initially, President Chen Shui-bian appointed [[Tang Fei]], a member of the Kuomintang, to the premiership; however, this arrangement proved unworkable, and Chen's subsequent appointments were from the [[Democratic Progressive Party]]. (Chen's successors [[Ma Yingjeou]] and [[Tsai Ing-wen]] subsequently also appointed largely from their own parties, although both had also appointed premiers outside their parties.) The established constitutional convention is that the premier is responsible to the president and does not have any responsibility to the legislature other than to report on his activities. However, the [[Pan-Blue Coalition]] of the Kuomintang and its coalition partners contended that Chen's actions were unconstitutional, and proposed to name its own choice of premier. There are calls for a constitutional amendment to better define the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of government.
==See also==
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