The Taiwan Provincial Government (TPG) was established in May 1947 in Taipei to replace the former Office of the Governor-General, which had been set up in December 1945 after the Japanese returned Taiwan to Chinese control. Wey Daw-ming was appointed the first provincial governor. In 1957, the TPG was moved to its current location in Chunghsing Village, Nantou County (central Taiwan).
Being the highest administrative organ of Taiwan Province, the TPG's principal functions were to handle the general administrative affairs of the province; to promulgate provincial laws and regulations; to supervise the self-governance of the counties and cities under its jurisdiction; and to repeal or suspend actions by organizations under its jurisdiction or by county governments, if these actions were against the law, improper, or beyond their authority. The legislative power of a province was exercised by the Taiwan Provincial Assembly.
The TPG is headed by a governor, who, prior to December 1994, was nominated by the premier and appointed by the president of the Republic of China. Following the implementation of the Self-Governance Law for Provinces and Counties in 1994, James Soong was elected provincial governor in the first-and-only public election for that office.
At the end of 1996, the National Development Conference was convened to seek consensus within society and draw up a blueprint for development into the next century. One of the agreements was to streamline the TPG, and this was put into concrete provisions in the constitutional amendment of July 1997. The amended articles stipulate that a province is to have a government of nine members, who are to be nominated by the premier and appointed by the president, with one of the members to be appointed the governor. The provincial assembly is also to be restructured as a provincial advisory council made up of a number of members through the same process.
In October 1998, the Legislative Yuan passed the Provisional Statute on the Adjustment of the Function, Business and Organization of the Taiwan Provincial Government, which called for suspension of all stipulations pertaining to provincial autonomy in the Self-Governance Law for Provinces and Counties. Two other bills, the new Law on Local Government Systems, and the revised Law on the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures, were also passed in January 1999 to provide a complete legal framework for the streamlining project.
According to the provisional statute, after the TPG is streamlined, the central government will assume all of its assets and liabilities. The restructured TPG is to become a non-autonomous body that carries out the orders of the Executive Yuan and supervises matters governed by the counties. In December 1998, when Soong had completed his tenure as governor and members of the Tenth Taiwan Provincial Assembly their term of office, Chao Shou-po was appointed Taiwan provincial governor, and a twenty-nine-member provincial advisory council was set up.
Before the streamlining, the TPG had twenty-nine departments, bureaus and offices, under which were 173 subordinate agencies. Since July 1999, many of these departments have become the Executive Yuan's central Taiwan office, and many of the subordinate agencies have been promoted to central government jurisdiction. The downsized TPG now has thirteen sections and offices and two subordinate agencies: the Car Accidents Judging Committees in twelve areas, and the Historical Research Commission of Taiwan Province.