In 1931, after three years' operation under an Organic Law, the National Government adopted the _Yüeh Fa_ (Provisional Constitution),[2] designed to cover the period between the first stage of the revolution, _military conquest_, and the final one of _constitutional government_. This intermediate period was formally labelled the stage of _political tutelage_, although in fact the military unification of the country continued. The Provisional Constitution, designed for five years' use, has continued in force to the present (March 1941). It possesses the merit of attempting to make actual practice and constitutional form correspond. Grandiloquent, unenforceable provisions concerning elections are omitted, and full exercise of the powers of sovereignty are frankly entrusted to the tutelary Party, the Kuomintang. Such a constitution, formally making the Kuomintang different from and higher than any other party in China--and, for all that, in the world, since the Fascist, National Socialist, and Communist parties are not formally the constitutional superiors of their respective governments--and giving the Party unrestricted authority, has provided China with government realistic if not libertarian. [Footnote 2: The text of the _Yüeh Fa_ is to be found in _The China Year Book, 1932_, Shanghai, 1932, and in Lum, work cited, p. 161 _ff._, and Wu Chih-fang, work cited, p. 410 _ff._ The Chinese texts of all outstanding Chinese constitutions, from the Imperial programs down to the Double Five Draft of the _Hsien Fa_ are to be found in Wang Shih-chieh, _Pi-chiao Hsien-fa_, Shanghai, 1937, p. 699-796.] The constitutional basis of the present Party-dictatorship in China is well summarized by the distinguished constitutional commentator, Dr. Wang Shih-chieh: According to Sun Chung-shan's[3] _Chien-kuo Ta-kang_ [Outlines of National Reconstruction], China should pass through a period of political tutelage under the Chinese Kuomintang,[4] before the stage of constitutional government be reached. The National Government is merely an organization through which a true republic may be formed. Hence, in order to demonstrate the structure of the National Government clearly, we must first understand the meaning of _tang chih_ [party government].