2000 Taiwanese presidential election

The ruling Kuomintang ran Vice President Lien Chan for President and Premier Vincent Siew for Vice President. Both were career civil servants and Lien, originating from the Taiwanese aristocracy, was seen as aloof and unable to empathize with the common people.

Though more popular and consistently ranked higher in the polls, the outspoken former Taiwan Governor James Soong failed to gain the Kuomintang's nomination. As a result, he announced his candidacy as an independent candidate. The Kuomintang responded by expelling Soong and 21 of his allies in November 1999. It is a very common belief among KMT supporters that President Lee Teng-hui was secretly supporting Chen Shui-bian, and purposely supported the less popular Lien in order to split the Kuomintang, and this belief was given a great deal of credibility after the 2000 election with Lee's defection to the Pan-Green coalition, though Lee's defection came only after his expulsion by the KMT. Soong, a mainlander, tried to appeal to the native Taiwanese by nominating pro-independence surgeon Chang Chao-hsiung as his running-mate.

In December 1999, the KMT began to attack Soong's integrity. They sued Soong for theft, alleging that as party Secretary-General, he stole millions of Taiwan dollars in cash intended for the family of the late President Chiang Ching-kuo and hid the money in the Chunghsing Bills Finance Co. Soong defended himself by saying he was acting under Lee's direction, but his story was largely unpersuasive. Initially holding a commanding lead in the polls, Soong lost by just over 300,000 votes, and the financial scandal that tarnished his image as a clean politician likely led to this outcome.

The Democratic Progressive Party ran former Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian and Taoyuan County magistrate Annette Lu for vice president. Having run for the 1996 election on a radical independence platform and lost by a landslide, the DPP in May 1999 moderated its stance by issuing the "Resolution on the Future of Taiwan." The resolution accepted the status quo and promoted the moderate view that Taiwan was already independent, so any formal declaration would not be urgently necessary, if at all. Also included was the pledge that any change in Taiwan's international status will have to be done through a referendum, thus alleviating the fear that, if elected, a DPP government would unilaterally declare independence without popular approval. The Chen-Lu ticket also promised to be more aggressive in fighting black gold, to provide more funding for social services, and to be more environmentally friendly, such as opposition to nuclear power. The last minute public endorsement of Chen Shui-bian by President of the Academia Sinica and Nobel laureate Yuan T. Lee and other opinion leaders is also thought to have played a role in his election.

All independent presidential tickets were required to turn in a petition of 224,000 names to the Central Election Commission to confirm their candidacy and appear on the ballot.[3]

Former Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Hsu Hsin-liang, who had quit the party after failing to prevent Chen from running, ran as an independent with New Party legislator Josephine Chu as his running mate. As DPP Chairman, Hsu had moderated the platform of the party, promoting reconciliation with the People's Republic of China and the opening of direct links, a move not supported by President Lee. During the 2000 campaign, the Hsu-Chu ticket promoted reunification under 'one country, two systems' and opposed a referendum on independence.

The New Party nominated independent social commentator Li Ao—an acclaimed author, historian, and former political prisoner—for president and legislator Elmer Fung for vice president. Li, who supported 'one country, two systems', said he took the election as an opportunity to "educate" the people in Taiwan. Both he and his party publicly encouraged people to vote for James Soong to the point of stating during the televised presidential debates that he was not planning to vote for himself and that people should vote for Soong so that the pro-reunification vote would not be split.[4]

All of the candidates promised to work towards opening the Three Links, a largely popular measure.

Shortly before the election, Zhu Rongji, the premier of the People's Republic of China attempted to influence the outcome, warning that China would not "sit idly by" if Taiwan moved towards independence and that "independence means war". Following the election, Chinese analysts reached the conclusion that the statements of Chinese government had actually been counterproductive and helped Chen to win; consequently, China avoided making such an open attempt to influence the 2004 elections.

（Note：Winners are marked in red. ） [6]

Result by counties and cities

County/City	James Soong、Chang Chau-hsiung		Lien Chan、Vincent Siew		Li Ao、Elmer Fung		Hsu Hsin-liang、Josephine Chu		Chen Shui-bian、Annette Lu
	Vote count	%	Vote count	%	Vote count	%	Vote count	%	Vote count	%
Taipei	631,538	39.79%	347,564	21.90%	1,876	0.12%	8,723	0.25%	597,465	37.64%
New Taipei City	812,821	40.26%	451,707	22.37%	2,384	0.12%	10,641	0.53%	741,659	36.73%
Keelung	106,032	47.01%	48,545	21.52%	295	0.13%	1,116	0.49%	69,555	30.84%
Yilan	86,549	33.05%	51,082	19.51%	350	0.13%	736	0.28%	123,157	47.30%
Taoyuan	413,370	43.83%	208,881	22.15%	1,140	0.12%	20,581	2.18%	299,120	31.72%
Hsinchu County	128,231	51.58%	51,442	20.69%	309	0.12%	7,093	2.85%	61,533	24.25%
Hsinchu City	88,412	42.83%	46,234	22.40%	292	0.14%	1,746	0.85%	69,760	33.97%
Miaoli	160,533	49.54%	71,798	22.20%	399	0.12%	3,931	1.22%	86,707	26.81%
Taichung County	318,499	38.10%	206,832	24.74%	1,176	0.14%	4,304	0.51%	305,219	36.51%
Taichung City	217,486	41.37%	111,391	21.19%	616	0.12%	2,463	0.47%	193,796	36.86%
Changhua County	251,310	33.71%	191,685	25.71%	1,070	0.14%	2,811	0.38%	298,571	40.05%
Nantou	144,863	46.94%	56,025	18.15%	395	0.13%	914	0.30%	106,440	34.49%
Yunlin	114,188	27.70%	102,177	24.78%	975	0.24%	1,230	0.30%	193,715	45.99%
Chiayi County	85,890	26.98%	73,409	23.06%	561	0.18%	920	0.29%	157,512	49.49%
Chiayi City	43,773	29.34%	34,670	23.24%	169	0.11%	448	0.30%	70,124	47.01%
Tainan County	136,217	21.10%	159,443	24.70%	1,164	0.18%	1,582	0.25%	347,210	53.78%
Tainan City	114,299	27.53%	107,679	25.93%	580	0.14%	1,408	0.34%	191,261	45.06%
Kaohsiung City	259,023	29.78%	208,544	23.97%	877	0.10%	3,103	0.36%	398,381	45.79%
Kaohsiung County	206,616	28.43%	174,021	23.95%	1,024	0.14%	2,478	0.34%	342,553	47.14%
Pintung County	131,371	25.48%	142,934	27.73%	692	0.13%	1,939	0.38%	238,572	45.28%
Hualien County	109,962	58.81%	36,042	19.28%	194	0.10%	736	0.39%	40,044	21.24%
Taitung County	63,913	52.78%	28,659	23.66%	136	0.11%	294	0.24%	28,102	23.20%
Penghu County	17,723	39.55%	10,418	23.25%	64	0.14%	119	0.27%	16,487	36.79%
Kinmen County	19,991	81.81%	3,543	14.50%	37	0.15%	105	0.43%	759	3.11%
Lienchiang County (Matsu)	2,362	73.31%	787	24.43%	7	0.22%	8	0.25%	58	1.80%