TheControl Yuan is the supervisory andauditorybranch of the government of theRepublic of China, both during its time inmainland China andTaiwan.^[1]

Control Yuan

監察院
Emblem of the Control Yuan
Agency overview
Formed	16 February 1928; 97 years ago (1928-02-16) (pre-constitution) 4 June 1948; 76 years ago (1948-06-04) (1947 Constitution) 1 February 1993; 32 years ago (1993-02-01) (1992 Constitution amendment)
Preceding agency	Auditing Yuan
Jurisdiction	Taiwan
Status	Parliamentary institution suspended since 1993
Headquarters	Zhongzheng District,Taipei
Agency executives	Chen Chu,President of the Control Yuan Lee Hung-chun,Vice President of the Control Yuan
Key document	Additional Articles and the originalConstitution of the Republic of China
Website	www.cy.gov.tw

Control Yuan 監察院
Type
Type	Upper house
History
Founded	4 June 1948; 76 years ago (1948-06-04)
Disbanded	1 February 1993; 32 years ago (1993-02-01)
Structure
Seats	178
Length of term	6 years
Authority	Constitution of the Republic of China
Elections
Voting system	Indirect election
Meeting place
Control Yuan Building,Nanking (1948-1950) Control Yuan Building,Taipei,Taiwan
Constitution
Constitution of the Republic of China

Designed as a hybrid ofauditor andombudsman byTaiwanese law, the Control Yuan holds the following powers:^[2]

• Impeachment: The Control Yuan has the power to impeach government officials. Successfully impeached cases then go to the Disciplinary Court of theJudicial Yuan for adjudication.^[3] Impeachment of thePresident and theVice President of the Republic follows a different procedure and does not go through the Control Yuan.
• Censure: The Control Yuan also has the power to censure a government official. The censure is sent to the official's superior officer.^[4]
• Audit: TheExecutive Yuan (cabinet) presents the annual budget to the Control Yuan each year for audit.
• Corrective Measures: The Control Yuan, after investigating the work and facilities of the Executive Yuan and its subordinate organs, may propose corrective measures to the Executive Yuan or its subordinate organs for improvement after these measures are examined and approved by the relevant committees.

According to the currentConstitution, the Control Yuan shall consist of 29 members. One member shall be thePresident of the Control Yuan, and another shall be theVice President. All members, including the President and Vice President of Control Yuan, shall be nominated by thePresident of the Republic and approved byLegislative Yuan (the parliament ofTaiwan). Members serve with a term limit of six years.

Prior to constitutional reforms in the 1990s, the Control Yuan, along withNational Assembly (electoral college) and theLegislative Yuan (lower house) formed the nationaltricameral parliament. It functioned similarly to anupper house of a bicameral legislature, though it formed its own separate branch and was indirectly elected by provincial or municipal legislatures with 178 senators elected.^[5]

The Control Yuan consists of a council with 29 members, including aPresident and aVice President and the National Audit Office. All 29 members and theauditor-general are nominated by thePresident of the Republic and approved byLegislative Yuan for 6-year terms. The incumbent 6th Control Yuan was nominated byPresidentTsai Ing-wen on June 22, 2020^[6] and later confirmed byLegislative Yuan on July 17, 2020.^[7] Members inaugurated on August 1, 2020, and their terms expire on July 31, 2026.

The council of the Yuan, chaired by the Yuan President, is divided into a number of committees to exercise the Yuan's supervision power. No member of the Control Yuan can hold another public office or profession while serving in the branch (according to Article 103 of the constitution), and members must be able to perform absent of partisan control or influence. Members can vote in no more than three committees and can join additional committees as non-voting members. Each committee can have up to 14 members and usually elects a convenor amongst themselves to chair committee meetings.

The following responsibilities were also assigned by various acts.

• Anti-Corruption: The Anti-Corruption Committee is a seven-member committee, which cannot include the President or Vice President of the Control Yuan, which deals with asset declarations by government officials, recusals due to conflict of interest, and political donations.^[8]
• Examination Invigilation: The Control Yuan also appoints proctors to supervise examinations for civil servants.^[9]

The National Human Rights Committee is a ten-member committee under the Control Yuan which investigates human rights abuses, proposes human rights laws, compiles an annual report and promotes human rights education. The President of the Control Yuan must be a member of the committee. The committee was established by the National Human Rights Committee Organic Law on 10 December 2019.^[10]

An Administrative Appeal Committee, operated under the aegis of the Control Yuan but consisting of both members and non-members of the Control Yuan, considers administrative appeals which are inappropriate to both the Control Yuan proper and the Ministry of Audit.

The National Audit Office is headed by anauditor-general who is nominated by thePresident of the Republic and appointed with consent ofLegislative Yuan (parliament), exercises the Control Yuan's power of audit. It consists of five departments:

• General public affairs audit department
• National defense expenditures audit department
• Special public affairs audit department
• State-run corporations and government-owned businesses audit department
• Financial affairs audit department (also in charge of supervising local government audits)

In addition, most local governments have established the Audit Divisions/Offices, these serve as the subordinate agencies of the National Audit Office. Currently, 21 local governments of the 22administrative divisions of Taiwan have Audit Divisions/Offices (exceptLienchiang County).

The Control Yuan is responsible to investigate possible violations onlaws and regulations ofpublic servants and raiseimpeachments if needed. Investigations are initiated by at least two members, and investigation committees must consist of at least nine members of the Control Yuan. The impeachment cases would be determined by a majority vote by members of investigation committee. Successful impeachment cases will then be forwarded to the Disciplinary Court (懲戒法院) under theJudicial Yuan for adjudication. However, the impeachment of thePresident orVice President shall be initiated byLegislative Yuan (parliament) and adjudicate by the Constitutional Court under theJudicial Yuan. Details regarding impeachment proceedings are stipulated in the Enforcement Rules of the Control Act.^[11]

• On 19 February 2020, the Control Yuan impeached five military personnel which it deemed responsible for a F-16 Fighter aircraft crash on June 4, 2018, that killed all on board. The case was forwarded to the Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission in theJudicial Yuan to determine the punishment.^[12]
• On 4 June 2019, Hsieh Kung-ping (謝公秉), a top aide of formerHualien County commissionerFu Kun-chi, Lin Chin-hu (林金虎), a county government employee, and media section chief Huang Wei-jun (黃微鈞), were impeached for bribery using $5.26 million in public funds.^[13][14] Both were found guilty on 18 February 2020; Hsieh was given two demerits and fined $100,000 NTD, Lin was handed a 10% pay reduction for a year, and Huang was given one demerit and fined $100,000 NTD.^[15]
• On 15 January 2019,Kuan Chung-ming, the president ofNational Taiwan University, was impeached for violating a law prohibiting public servants from working other jobs. The case was forwarded to the Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission in theJudicial Yuan to determine whether he was guilty and the appropriate punishment.^[16] Kuan was found guilty on 2 September 2019 and officially reprimanded.^[17]

The concept of Control Yuan was introduced bySun Yat-sen'sThree Principles of the People. The theory proposed aseparation of powers into five branches (五院;wǔyuàn;gō͘-īⁿ).Sun Yat-sen demonstrated the benefit of separating the supervision and auditing power from thelegislature by the designation of the state organs of theImperial China. He quotes the long tradition of supervision used in past dynasties, ranging from theCensor (御史) established by theQin (秦) andHan (漢) dynasties to thetái (臺) andjiàn (諫) offices established under theSui (隋) andTang (唐) dynasties (tai were selected to supervise civil officials and military officers, whilejian were selected to counsel the emperor on supervisory matters) to the Board of Public Censors (都察院) selected under theMing (明) andQing (清) dynasties. Most of these offices also operated local and provincial branches to supervise local governments. Under theQing dynasty, the Board of Public Censors consisted of forty or fifty members, and two presidents, one ofManchu ancestry and the other ofHan Chinese ancestry.^[18][19] They were, in theory, allowed to send one censor to participate in the meetings of all government boards. The Board's powers were minimized by the time of political flux which preceded the end of the Empire.

However, the 1947Constitution of the Republic of China has many influences from the resolutions of thePolitical Consultative Assembly held between the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and theChinese Communist Party.Carsun Chang, the major author of the Constitution draft in the Political Consultative Assembly, considered the fact that the supervision and auditing power is traditionally held by thelegislature, and also the proposal offederalism from theCommunist Party in the drafting process. He designed the Control Yuan to be achamber of parliament that isindirectly elected by theprovincial legislatures ofChina. The Control Yuan has some similarities to theUnited States Senate, which allocated a similar number of seats to eachprovince ofChina and holds the power to confirm many important public positions in theJudicial Yuan andExamination Yuan appointed by thePresident of the Republic.^[20]

In the 1947 constitution, the Control Yuan, together withNational Assembly andLegislative Yuan, thus formed chambers of atricameral parliament according to theJudicial Yuan's interpretation number 76 of the Constitution in 1957.^[21] The Control Yuan was given the power to request documents from other government agencies and investigate them for violations of law or neglect as underSun Yat-sen's ideology. Theauditor-general was considered elected by the Control Yuan, who shall be nominated by thePresident of the Republic with consent of theLegislative Yuan, who was responsible for submitting reports on government budgets.^[22] Finally, the Control Yuan had confirmation power for the President, Vice President and members of theJudicial Yuan andExamination Yuan.^[23][24]

In the earlyrepublican era, theBeiyang government was in favor of the traditional three-branch form ofseparation of powers. However, a weak culture ofrepublicanism and, later, theWarlord Era suppressed the implementation of this constitutional ideology.

After a successfulNorthern Expedition campaign, theKuomintang secured its leadership inChina and started to build theNationalist government according toSun Yat-sen's ideology. Five branches (Yuans) were created under theKuomintang'sparty-state administration. During this time, the Auditing Yuan (Chinese:審計院;pinyin:Shěnjì Yuàn) was established in February 1928, but in February 1931, the Control Yuan was established and the Auditing Yuan was downgraded to the current ministry-level National Audit Office within the Control Yuan.^[25] The creation of Control Yuan on 16 February 1931 was the last establishment of the five-Yuans.^[26]

However, the 1947Constitution of the Republic of China, although retaining the architecture of the five-branch government, changed the Control Yuan to be aparliamentchamber. Under the constitution, members of the Yuan (by now senatorsde facto) were elected from regionallegislatures: 5 from eachprovince, 2 from eachdirect-administered municipality, 8 fromMongolia (by 1948 only the Inner Mongolian provinces were represented), 8 fromTibet, and 8 from theoverseas Chinese communities. As originally envisioned both thePresident andVice President of the Control Yuan were to be elected by and from the members like thespeaker of many otherparliamentary bodies worldwide. Following thepromulgation of theConstitution, the 178 first Control Yuan senators elected by the regionallegislatures convened inNanking on June 4, 1948, for the opening of their chamber.^[25] The first Control Yuan then confirmed the leaders and members of the firstJudicial Yuan andExamination Yuan. The transition fromone-party stateNationalist government toconstitutional government was hence completed.

However, a year later, theKuomintang-ledgovernment of the Republic of China lost theChinese Civil War andretreated toTaiwan in December 1949.Taiwan had beenunder Japanese rule before August 15, 1945; as a result ofWorld War II, theRepublic of ChinaArmed Forces occupiedTaiwan on behalf of theAllies. The government establishedTaiwan Province to mark its annexation ofTaiwan. There were 104 members who retreated to Taiwan with the government, including 5 senators from Taiwan. The Control Yuan occupied the former governmental building ofTaihoku Prefecture in theJapanese era. The term of the retreated senators was extended indefinitely until "re-election is possible in their originalelectoral district." During this era, the first Control Yuan members continued to conduct sessions inTaipei until they were ordered to retire by theJudicial Yuan (Constitutional Court) in 1991.

With the reduction of members due to age, elections were held from 1969 to 1986 to elect new senators to the Yuan from Taiwan, and the cities of Taipei and Kaoshung were soon represented.

Until 1993, the Control Yuan's legislative work was limited to helping to audit the national budget, which would then be presented to the Legislative Yuan. The other actions the then chamber took were its impeachment, confirmation and censure powers, applied whenever necessary.

Democratization took place inTaiwan starting late 1980s; the movement resulted in a series ofconstitutional amendment known as theAdditional Articles of the Constitution. On May 27, 1992, the second amendment removed the Control Yuan fromparliamentchambers and its members removed from their legislative duties. Decision process of leaders and members of the Control Yuan follows a similar pattern ofJudicial Yuan andExamination Yuan. These officials were nominated by thePresident of the Republic and confirmation by theNational Assembly. TheNational Assembly was anotherparliamentchamber that can hold the confirmation process to maintain theseparation of powers.^[27]

On 18 July 1997, by the 4thconstitutional amendment, the procedure toimpeach thePresident andVice President of the Republic was transferred out from the Control Yuan. In this amendment, presidential impeachment shall be initiated byLegislative Yuan and voted by theNational Assembly.^[28] However, the later political developments inTaiwan has inclined to simplify theparliament toone chamber. TheLegislative Yuan was the surviving chamber and theNational Assembly was then abolished.^[29] Since 25 April 2000, confirmation of leaders and members of the Control Yuan are transferred toLegislative Yuan, together with the confirmation of similar officials ofJudicial Yuan andExamination Yuan.^[30]

At the end of 2004,PresidentChen Shui-bian sent a list of nominees to positions in the Control Yuan to theLegislative Yuan for approval. The coalition ofKuomintang andPeople First Party, which then held a majority in the Legislative Yuan, refused to ratify President Chen's nominees and demanded that he submit a new list. The political deadlock that resulted stopped the Control Yuan from functioning from February 2005 to July 2008. The situation resolved afterKuomintang's candidateMa Ying-jeou was elected as thePresident in2008 Taiwanese presidential election andKuomintang won thesupermajority of Legislative Yuan seats in2008 Taiwanese legislative election. Mr.Wang Chien-shien was then appointed to be its president under theMa Ying-jeou administration.

In 2016,Democratic Progressive Party's candidateTsai Ing-wen was elected as thePresident in2016 Taiwanese presidential election andDemocratic Progressive Party won the majority of Legislative Yuan seats in2016 Taiwanese legislative election. On 10 December 2019, theLegislative Yuan passed the National Human Rights Committee Organic Law (國家人權委員會組織法), which established the National Human Rights Committee under the Control Yuan. Its duties include investigating human rights abuses, proposing human rights laws, compiling an annual report, and educational promotion of human rights, in accordance with theParis Principles.^[31] The committee will consist of 10 members, one of which is the President of the Control Yuan who heads the committee.^[10] It launched on August 1, 2020, with former democracy activistChen Chu as president.^[32]Kuomintang memberJustin Huang was discussed as a potential vice-president, but he declined the position after receiving criticism from both the KMT for crossing party lines without consultation and the DPP for his role in the construction of theTaitung Miramar Resort while he was county magistrate, for which the county government was censured by the Control Yuan.^[33][34]

TheKuomintang-ledgovernment of the Republic of Chinaretreated toTaiwan in 1949, the year following the elections after the enactment of the 1947 constitution. As theKuomintang government continues to claim sovereignty overmainland China, the term limit of the original Members of the Control Yuan was extended until "re-election is possible in their originalelectoral districts." In response to the increasing democracy movement inTaiwan, limited supplementary elections were held in theFree Area (Taiwan) starting 1969. Members elected in these supplementary elections served together with those who were elected in 1948. This situation remained until a Constitutional Court (Judicial Yuan) ruling on June 21, 1991, that ordered the retirement of all members with extended terms by the end of 1991.^[36]

Timeline of Control Yuan elections and terms

The President and Vice President of the Control Yuan in theNationalist government era were appointed by theKuomintang (Nationalist Party).

The Control Yuan was achamber ofparliament under the 1947Constitution of the Republic of China. The President and Vice President of the Control Yuan were elected by and from the members like thespeaker of many otherparliamentary bodies.

Since the 1992 ratification of theconstitutional amendment, the Control Yuan was reorganized from a chamber ofparliament to an independent agency that still performs most of its designated constitutional powers. Since the 4th term, the President and Vice President of the Control Yuan, together with other members, were nominated by thePresident of the Republic and approved by theLegislative Yuan (the now-unicameral parliament ofTaiwan).

• Comptroller
• Government of the Republic of China
• Government performance auditing
• Ombudsman
• Politics of the Republic of China

• Official website
• Official website (English)