The National Assembly was the authoritative legislative body of the Republic of China, from 1947 to 2005. Along with the Control Yuan (upper house) and the Legislative Yuan (lower house), the National Assembly formed the tricameral parliament of the Republic of China.

Similar to other electoral colleges, the National Assembly had elected the President and Vice President under the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China with the role of the constituent assembly that aimed to amend the country's constitution.

The first National Assembly was elected in November 1947 and met in Nanjing in March 1948. However, in the next year, the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China lost mainland China in the Civil War and retreated to Taiwan. The National Assembly resumed its meeting in Taipei in 1954. In the 1990s, its parliamentary powers were gradually transferred to the Legislative Yuan and direct democracy exercised by the de facto residents before constitutional amendments made it a dormant body in 2000 and dissolved it (subject to a sunset clause) in 2005.

Calls for a National Assembly were part of the platform of the revolutionaries who ultimately overthrew the Qing dynasty. In response, the Qing dynasty formed the first assembly in 1910, but it was virtually powerless and intended only as an advisory body. In the early Republican Era, the bicameral National Assembly was established by the Beiyang government. The design referred to the structure of the United States Congress as Senate (參議院) and House of Representatives (眾議院). However, the Warlord Era with the interference of military power toward the constitution suppressed the authority and the reputation of the National Assembly.

The Chinese social and political science review quoted the institution's English name as National People's Congress during the drafting of constitution.

In 1946, the Constituent Assembly promulgated a new constitution and the first National Assembly met in 1948 in Nanjing, the Chinese capital. Apart from the KMT, the only legal parties were the Democratic Socialist Party and the Youth Party.

Under the constitution, the main duty of the National Assembly was to elect the President and Vice President for terms of six years. It also had the right to recall or impeach the President and Vice President if they failed to fulfill their political responsibilities. According to "National Assembly Duties Act", the National Assembly could amend the constitution with a two-thirds majority, with at least three-quarters membership present, as well as to ratify constitutional amendments proposed by deputies of the Legislative Yuan. It could also change territorial boundaries. The responsibilities of the deputies of the Assembly, as well as of the Assembly as a whole, were derived from the directions of Sun Yat-sen. At that time the NA served as a counterpart to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, with a Presidium of the National Assembly governing over its activities.

In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War and mainland China became the People's Republic of China. The National Assembly (along with the entire ROC government) was relocated to Taipei. The Assembly's right to legislate was put into moratorium until at least half of all counties in the nation were again able to elect representatives via their County Assemblies.^{[citation needed]}