The Temporary Provisions symbolises the country's entering into the state of emergency and granted the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China extra-constitutional powers.

Following the ROC government's retreat to Taiwan on 7 December 1949, the Temporary Provisions together with martial law made the country an authoritarian one-party state despite the constitution.

The Additional Articles also significantly changed the structure of the government to a semi-presidential system with a unicameral parliament, which formed the basis of a multi-party democracy in Taiwan.

[4][5][6] However, attempts by the Democratic Progressive Party administration to create a new constitution during the second term of DPP President Chen Shui-bian failed, because the then opposition Kuomintang controlled the Legislative Yuan.

The first attempt towards constitutionalism in China was during the Hundred Days' Reform that took place in 1898 by the young Guangxu Emperor and his reform-minded supporters, but a coup by conservative monarchists loyal to Empress Dowager Cixi ended this effort.

Likewise, Emperor Meiji granted the majority of executive and legislative powers to the Governor-General of Taiwan, an appointed military leader.

From 1921 to 1934, political activists attempted to petition the Imperial Japanese government to establish Taiwanese parliamentary assembly, which was met with little success.

Conversely, the formation of the Taiwan Local Autonomy Alliance (臺灣地方自治聯盟 [zh]) in 1930 eventually contributed the limited city and township council elections in 1935.

[12] Caving to these political movements, the Japanese colonial government established councils to integrate public opinion with the state.

Upon his death in 1916, China disintegrated into warlordism and the Beiyang Government operating under the Constitution remained in the hands of various military leaders.

The KMT intended this Constitution to remain in effect until the country had been pacified and the people sufficiently "educated" to participate in democratic government.

The impending outbreak of the Chinese Civil War pressured Chiang Kai-shek into enacting a democratic Constitution that would end KMT one-party rule.

Amidst heated debate, many of the demands from the Communist Party were met, including the popular election of the Legislative Yuan.

Professor John Ching Hsiung Wu, Vice-chairman of the Constitution Drafting Commission, was the principal author of the text.

[20] The ideology of the Chinese Nationalist Party during the Xinhai Revolution was to create unity between the five traditional ethnic groups in China (Han, Manchus, Mongols, Hui (Muslims), and Tibetans) in order to stand up to European and Japanese imperialism as one, strong nation.

However, a combination of the Chinese civil war and President Chiang Kai-shek's strong authoritarian impulses led to a dramatic expansion of presidential powers, shifting the ROC to a semi-presidential constitutional regime.

In 1948, the National Assembly ratified the Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion, which superseded the Constitution by granting the President enhanced administrative and executive capabilities.

[27] Under the Temporary Provisions, the President was no longer obligated to gain the Legislative Yuan's approval when declaring martial law as stipulated in Article 39.

Though the Constitution was intended for the whole China, it was neither extensively nor effectively implemented as the KMT was already fully embroiled in a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party by the time of its promulgation.

Faced with these pressures, on 22 April 1991, the first National Assembly voted itself out of office, abolished the Temporary Provisions passed in 1948, and adopted major amendments (known as the "First Revision") permitting free elections.

On 27 May 1992, several other amendments were passed (known as the "Second Revision"), most notably that allowing the direct election of the President of the Republic of China, Governor of Taiwan Province, and municipal mayors.

The amendments that passed in July 1997 streamlined the Taiwan Provincial Government and granted the Legislative Yuan powers of impeachment.

Passing an amendment to the ROC constitution now requires an unusually broad political consensus, which includes approval from three-fourths of the quorum of members of the Legislative Yuan.

Until the 1990s when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) joined the Kuomintang (KMT) in amending the constitution, the document was considered illegitimate by pro-independence advocates because it was not drafted in Taiwan; moreover, they deemed Taiwan to be sovereign Japanese territory until ceded in the San Francisco Peace Treaty effective 28 April 1952.

[33] No such formal annexation of Taiwan islands by the ROC National Assembly conforming with the ROC constitution ever occurred since 1946, even though Article 9 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China says, "The modifications of the functions, operations, and organization of the Taiwan Provincial Government may be specified by law."

Since control of Taiwan occurred in 1945 before the promulgation of the 1947 constitution, the ROC government is of the view that a resolution by the National Assembly was unnecessary.

The constitution states that "The exercise of the rights of initiative and referendum shall be prescribed by law",[34] but legislation prescribing the practices had been blocked by the pan-blue coalition largely out of suspicions that proponents of a referendum law would be used to overturn the ROC Constitution and provide a means to declare Taiwan independence.

[citation needed] Some proponents support replacing the five-branch structure outlined by the Three Principles of the People with a three-branch government.

[citation needed] The proposal to implement an entirely new constitution met with strong opposition from the People's Republic of China and great unease from the United States, both of which feared the proposal to rewrite the constitution to be a veiled effort to achieve Taiwan independence, as it would sever a historic link to mainland China, and to circumvent Chen's original Four Noes and One Without pledge.

[citation needed] In December 2003, the United States announced its opposition to any referendum that would tend to move Taiwan toward formal "independence", a statement that was widely seen as being directed at Chen's constitutional proposals.