Editing James Soong (section)

=== 2004 presidential election ===
Despite the personal rivalries between Lien, the KMT chairman after 2000, and Soong, the KMT and People First Party pledged to cooperate in future elections to prevent splitting the vote. Though losses in the [[2001 Taiwanese legislative election|2001 legislative election]] made the DPP the largest single party in the [[Legislative Yuan]], the [[pan-Blue Coalition]] retained a narrow majority over the [[pan-Green Coalition]].

Soong ran as a vice presidential candidate under Lien Chan in the [[2004 Taiwanese presidential election|2004 election]].<ref name="elec_2004">{{cite journal |last1=Simon |first1=Scott |last2=Wang |first2=Fu-cheng |last3=Wong |first3=Joseph |last4=Laliberté |first4=André |last5=Henderson |first5=Robert D'A. |title=Domestic and International Considerations of Taiwan's 2004 Presidential Election: An Interdisciplinary Roundtable |journal=Pacific Affairs |date=2004 |volume=77 |issue=4 |pages=683–713 |jstor=40023538 }}</ref>{{rp|pages=691, 693–694}} Some believe that the PFP's lack of experienced candidates in the December 2002 mayoral elections in [[Taipei]] and [[Kaohsiung]] (the PFP supported the KMT's candidates), and the PFP's poor performance the city council elections in those cities at the same time were major setbacks to Soong's chances of being the KMT-PFP candidate for president. There were widespread rumours that Soong agreed to take the vice-presidential post in exchange for a pledge by Lien to give him significant power, including the premiership. Many KMT members opposed the linkage, considering Soong an opportunist and traitor. Soong's supporters pointed out that he was more popular than Lien, as consistently demonstrated by polls and the results of the 2000 presidential elections. Though both men garnered a combined 60% of the vote in 2000 (compared to Chen's 39%), they lost to Chen in 2004 by a mere 0.22% of the vote and never conceded.