Editing James Soong (section)

== Governor of Taiwan (1994–98) ==
In 1994 Soong was elected and became the only directly elected [[governor of Taiwan Province]]. He was widely perceived to be an excellent campaigner and his excellent showing in the governorship ended hopes by the DPP of a "[[Boris Yeltsin|Yeltsin]] effect", by which an elected governor would have more legitimacy than the national government, due to the president being still elected by the National Assembly at that time.

Despite his ''[[Waishengren]]'' background, Soong proved to be a popular politician among all ethnic groups on Taiwan, in part because he was one of the first [[Kuomintang|KMT]] politicians to attempt to speak in [[Taiwanese Hokkien]] in political and formal occasions.

After Premier [[Lien Chan]] was [[1996 Taiwanese presidential election|elected vice-president in 1996]], the premiership was vacated in 1997 after the Judicial Yuan ruled out that the person could not serve both vice-president and premier. Soong felt that as Governor of Taiwan, he was the natural successor to Lien, but President Lee believed that Soong should serve out his term. President Lee appointed [[Vincent Siew]], whom Soong considered a subordinate, and this act led to the split between Soong and Lee.

The position of Governor of Taiwan was eliminated in December 1998 following a [[National Development Council (Taiwan)|National Development Council]] meeting in 1996, when it suggested that the administrative structure of the Taiwanese government be streamlined. Soong and his supporters believe this to have been a political move by President Lee to cut off Soong's power base, but proponents of the downsizing called it a pragmatic move to eliminate administrative redundancies. Soong tendered his resignation on December 31 of the same year, but President Lee did not accept it.