As a republican phenomenon, the idea of government supervision and audit was adopted by Sun Yat-sen during his involvement with the Tongmenghui as part of five proposed branches of republican government. Following the establishment of the provisional republican government, the traditional three branches were initially put in place. By 1928, however, the Control and Examination Yuans were established by the provisional government. A sixth Auditing Yuan (審計院; pinyin: Shěnjì Yuàn) was established in February 1928, but in February 1931, the Auditing Yuan was downgraded to the current Ministry of Audit and incorporated into the Control Yuan.
The first formal Control Yuan was elected by provincial, municipal, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Overseas Chinese representative councils and was first convened in 1948 following the enactment of the 1947 Constitution. Most branch offices of the Control Yuan were closed following the KMT evacuation to Taiwan from the mainland.