Qinmindang

親民 黨 Qīnmín Dǎng Popular party
Party leader	James Soong
founding	March 31, 2000
Headquarters	Taipei
Alignment	conservatism
Colours)	orange
Parliament seats	0/113
Website	pfp.org.tw

James Soong, founder and party leader of Qinmindang, at a 2012 election rally

The Qinmindang ( Chinese  親民 黨  /  亲民 党 , Pinyin Qīnmín Dǎng , English People First Party (PFP) , German occasionally translated as "People's party") is a political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan . It emerged in 2000 as a spin-off from the Kuomintang (KMT). Politically, it belongs to the conservative spectrum.

History of origin and political positions

In the 2000 presidential election in the Republic of China, the governor of Taiwan Province James Soong ran as an independent candidate, a departure from the KMT party line. He was then expelled from the KMT along with some declared supporters. After the election for both him and the KMT had been lost, Soong founded his own party, the Qinmindang (in non-Chinese countries mostly as PFP, from People First Party ), of which he became chairman. The party name ( 親民 , Qīnmín ), often translated as “close to the people”, was borrowed from the Confucian Great Learning . The political goals of the PFP are very similar to those of the KMT. The Qinmindang has long been part of the Pan-Blue coalition . She advocates a national Chinese culture and economic and cultural exchange with mainland China. Taiwan's full independence is rejected.

Since its inception, the Qinmindang has been strongly influenced by its founder and chairman James Soong. In the 2004 presidential election, Soong was narrowly defeated as a vice-presidential candidate by the Pan-Blue coalition. After losing the mayoral election in Taipei in 2006, Soong announced his retirement from politics and the party he founded appeared to be facing an uncertain future. However, this withdrawal did not take place and negotiations about a merger of the KMT and Qinmindang were broken up. In 2011 Soong announced that he would run again in the 2012 presidential election . In this election he achieved 2.8% of the nationwide vote, his party won 3 seats in the 113-member parliament in the legislative yuan election that took place on the same day . In the following election for the legislative yuan in 2016 , the Qinmindang was able to hold this share of the vote and thus again won 3 parliamentary seats.

Legislative yuan election results so far

choice	Won seats	modification	Total votes	Votes in percent	Result	Top candidate
2001	46/225	▲ 46	1,917,836	20.3%	in opposition	James Soong
2004	34/225	▼ 12	1,350,613	14.78%	in opposition	James Soong
2008	1/113	▼ 33	28,254	0.3%	Member of the pan-blue coalition	James Soong
2012	3/113	▲ 2	722.089	5.49%	Member of the pan-blue coalition	James Soong
2016	3/113	▬	794.838	6.52%	in opposition	James Soong
2020	0/113	▼ 3	518.921	3.66%	not represented in the Legislative Yuan	James Soong

literature

• Thomas Weyrauch: Taiwan's common color. The Democratic Profile of the Republic of China . Heuchelheim: Longtai 2015, ISBN 978-3-938946-26-8 .

Web links

• Qinmindang / PFP website (Chinese)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ CEC officially announces candidates for the presidential election. Radio Taiwan International (German service), December 18, 2015, accessed December 20, 2015 . 
2. ↑ The first sentence of the 'Great Learning' is: 大學 之 道 ， 在 明明德 ， 在 親民 ， 在 止於至善。 , Dàxué zhīdào, zài míngmíng dé, zài qīnmín, zài zhǐyú zhìshàn.  - "What great learning teaches is the illustration of brilliant virtue, to be close to people and to rest in the highest perfection.", See
   

   Wikisource: 大學 (The Great Learning)  - Sources and full texts (Chinese)
3. ↑ an additional 8 seats, which were won by candidates who were formally running under the name of the Kuomintang or on its list