List of political parties in the Republic of China

This article lists political parties in the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan. It developed into a multi-party system with two dominant parties after President Chiang Ching-kuo ended martial law on 15 July 1987. As of July 2014, there are 254 legally registered political parties in the ROC.[1]

History

Tongmenghui.

The Republic of China was founded by the Kuomintang (KMT) leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen in 1912. The Kuomintang's prior revolutionary political group, the Revive China Society, was founded on 24 November 1894. It later merged with various other revolutionary groups to form the Tongmenghui in 1905. In August 1911, the Tongmenghui further merged with various other political parties in Beijing to form the KMT. In July 1914, the KMT re-organized itself as the "Chinese Revolutionary Party" in Tokyo, Japan. In 1919, the party officially renamed itself as "Kuomintang of China", which literally translates to "Chinese Nationalist Party".[2] It was China's first major political party. In 1921, the Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in Shanghai as a study society and an informal network. Slowly, the CPC began to grow. These were the two major political parties in the ROC, during the time when the ROC ruled mainland China from 1911 to 1949.

During the Chinese Civil War, under the leadership of the CPC, the People's Liberation Army defeated the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang in 1949. The Kuomintang had no choice but to leave mainland China and move to Taiwan. It continued to use the name "Republic of China" (ROC) even though the CPC claimed that the Republic of China ceased to exist after 1949.

As Taiwan democratized during the 1980s, the number of legally registered political parties in Taiwan had increased exponentially and continued to increase year by year, indicating a liberal democracy and high political freedom in Taiwan.

Political parties

There are two ideological blocs in Taiwan, commonly called the Pan-Blue Coalition and the Pan-Green Coalition. The pan-blues, led by the Kuomintang, are in favor of eventual unification with mainland China under the government of the ROC, while the pan-greens (led by the Democratic Progressive Party) are in favor of eventual formal independence for Taiwan, though the majority in both coalitions state a desire to maintain the status quo for now. Many minor parties in Taiwan are unaligned with either coalition.

Parties with national or regional representation

Party Representation Leader Alliance
Legislative Yuan Special municipalities, provincial cities, and counties
Leaders Seats
  Democratic Progressive Party 68 13 291 Tsai Ing-wen Pan-Green Coalition  
  Kuomintang 35 6 386 Hung Hsiu-chu Pan-Blue Coalition  
  New Power Party 5 – – Huang Kuo-chang Pan-Green Coalition  
  People First Party 3 – 9 James Soong Pan-Blue Coalition  
  Non-Partisan Solidarity Union 1 – – Lin Ping-kun Pan-Blue Coalition  
  Taiwan Solidarity Union – – 9 vacant Pan-Green Coalition  
  Minkuotang – – 2 Hsu Hsin-Ying Pan-Blue Coalition  
  New Party – – 2 Yok Mu-ming Pan-Blue Coalition  
  Green Party Taiwan – – 2 Lee Keng-cheng
Chang Yu-jing		 Unaligned  
  Trees Party – – 1 Pan Han-chiang
Lin Chia-yu		 Unaligned  
  Taiwan First Nations Party – – 1 Shih Ching-lung Unaligned  
  Labor Party – – 1 Wu Rong-yuan Unaligned  

List of registered political parties of the ROC

Here is a list of parties according to the Ministry of the Interior, by order of registration. Dates indicate date of founding.

Notes

  1. ↑ KMT's prior body was Revive China Society (Xinzhonghui 興中會), founded on 24 November 1894. It officially renamed itself as China Nationalist Party 中國國民黨 in 1919.
  2. ↑ The prior body of China Democratic Socialist Party (中國民主社會黨) was China National Socialist Party (中國國家社會黨), which was founded on 16 April 1932. It renamed itself as China Democratic Socialist Party (中國民主社會黨) on 15 August 1946.

References

External links

See also

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