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People First Party 親民黨
Leader	James Soong
Founded	31 March 2000
Split from	Kuomintang
Headquarters	Taipei, Taiwan
Ideology	Liberal conservatism
Political position	Centre tocentre-right
National affiliation	Pan-Blue Coalition
Colors	Orange
Legislative Yuan	0 / 113
Municipal mayors	0 / 6
Magistrates/mayors	0 / 16
Councilors	2 / 912
Township/city mayors	0 / 204
Party flag
Website
www.pfp.org.tw
Politics of the Republic of China Political parties Elections

ThePeople First Party (PFP,Chinese:親民黨;pinyin:Qīnmín Dǎng;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Chhin-bîn-tóng) is acentrist tocentre-right political party inTaiwan.

The party was founded byJames Soong in March 2000 after his failed independent presidential bid earlier in theMarch 2000 presidential election; Soong was previously expelled from theKuomintang after launching an independent bid. In the2001 legislative election, it became the third-largest party in theLegislative Yuan. In the2004 presidential election, the KMT-PFP joint ticket of Lien Chan and James Soong narrowly lost to PresidentChen Shui-bian. In the2008 legislative election, the party lost all but one of its seats, though it rebounded to three seats in the2012 legislative election.

Soong ran again in the2012 and2016 presidential elections, gathering 2.77% and 12.84% of the vote respectively. In2020, Soong announced his last presidential bid; he lost the election with a vote share of 4.26%. In the concurrent2020 legislative election, the PFP lost all of its seats in the Legislative Yuan.

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The PFP was founded byJames Soong and his supporters after his failed independentbid for the presidency in 2000. Soong was previously a member of theKuomintang but was expelled from the party after he announced an independent presidential bid. Soong himself is the chairman, and dominates much of its politics. The name of the party,People First (親民), hasConfucian connotations.^{[note 1]}

The party maintains a close but tense relationship with theKuomintang (KMT) as part of thepan-blue coalition.^[1] However, since PFP had, like theNew Party, grown out of the KMT, the two parties had to compete for the same set of voters. This dynamic in which both the KMT and PFP must simultaneously compete and cooperate with each other has led to complex and interesting politics.

In several notable cases, this has led to situations in which both parties have run candidates, but close to the election the party with the less popular candidate unofficially dropped out of the race. This in turn has led to some notable situations when either the PFP or the KMT has campaigned against its own candidate, which has led to intra-party resentment.^[2]

To avoid a repeat of this effect, which led to the election ofDemocratic Progressive Party candidateChen Shui-bian to the presidency in 2000 by a low share of votes,^[3] Chairman Soong ran as vice-president on KMT ChairmanLien Chan's presidential ticket in the2004 presidential election.^[4]

After his defeat in theTaipei mayoral elections held on 9 December 2006, Soong announced that he would retire from politics.^[5] At this point, with no clear goals, the PFP faced an uncertain future, and considered merging with the Kuomintang (KMT).^[6] After much negotiation, the PFP and the KMT did not merge.

In September 2011, James Soong mounted the PFP's first presidential bid and selected academicRuey-Shiung Lin to be his running mate for the2012 election, collecting enough signatures to make it on the ballot.^[7] While analysts feared that a PFP run would split the Pan-Blue Coalition vote and hand a winnable election to the DPP (as was the case in the2000 Presidential election), Soong insisted that his campaign was a serious one and that he would complete his run.^[8][9] On election day, the Soong-Lin ticket underperformed and garnered 2.77% of votes, whileMa Ying-jeou of the KMT defeatedTsai Ing-wen of the DPP by a margin of 51.60% to 45.63%. In theconcurrent legislative election the PFP won 5.46% of the party-list vote, gaining them two seats in theLegislative Yuan, and in addition won one district seat for a total of three seats.

Soong would launch presidential bids in2016 and2020 as well. In 2016, he would garner 12.84% of the vote, compared with 31.04% going toEric Chu of the KMT and 56.12% going toTsai Ing-wen of the DPP. In 2020 he would garner 4.26% of the vote, compared with 38.61% going toHan Kuo-yu of the KMT and 57.13% going toTsai Ing-wen of the DPP. In 2016, they would maintain their seats in the legislature; however, in 2020, the PFP failed to meet the 5% threshold for party-list representation and also did not win any district seats, and was no longer represented in theLegislative Yuan. Prior to the election result in 2020, James Soong announced that his 2020 bid would be his last, throwing the future of the party into question.^[10]

The People First Party is considered to be to be a centrist^[11] or centre-right political party.^[12]

The official goals of PFP, as regards tocross-strait relationships and diplomacy, is for the ROC to: participate in more international organizations, promote Chinese culture overseas and seek economic and cultural interaction between Taiwan and the mainland. Its views are seen as generally favorable towardsChinese unification and staunchly againstTaiwan independence.

Election	Candidate	Running mate	Total votes	Share of votes	Outcome
2000	James Soong Chu-yu[13]	Chang Chau-hsiung	4,664,932	36.8%	DefeatedN
2004	Lien Chan (KMT)	James Soong Chu-yu	6,423,906	49.8%	DefeatedN
2012	James Soong Chu-yu	Lin Ruey-shiung	369,588	2.77%	DefeatedN
2016	James Soong Chu-yu	Hsu Hsin-ying (MKT)	1,576,861	12.84%	DefeatedN
2020	James Soong Chu-yu	Sandra Yu	608,590	4.26%	DefeatedN

Election	Total seats won	Total votes	Share of votes	Seat changes	Election leader	Status	President
2001	46 / 225	1,917,836	20.3%	29 seats	James Soong Chu-yu	3rd Party	Chen Shui-bian
2004	34 / 225	1,350,613	14.78%	12 seats	James Soong Chu-yu	3rd Party
2008	1 / 113	28,254	0.3%	33 seats	James Soong Chu-yu	4th Party
						4th Party	Ma Ying-jeou
2012	3 / 113	722,089	5.49%	2 seats	James Soong Chu-yu	4th Party
2016	3 / 113	794,838	6.52%	0 seats	James Soong Chu-yu	4th Party	Tsai Ing-wen
2020	0 / 113	518,921	3.66%	3 seats	James Soong Chu-yu	Did not represent
2024	0 / 113	69,817	0.51%	0 seats	James Soong Chu-yu	Did not represent	Lai Ching-te

Election	Total seats won	Total votes	Share of votes	Changes	Election leader	Status	President
2005	18 / 300	236,716	6.11%	18 seats	James Soong Chu-yu	4th Party	Chen Shui-bian

• Politics of the Republic of China
• Elections in Taiwan
• List of political parties in Taiwan

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