Pan-Blue Coalition
The Pan-Blue Coalition's political stance can be characterized as centre-right,[5] conservative and being of Republic of China-centered Chinese nationalism.[citation needed] During the 2000 presidential election, Lee Teng-hui arranged for Lien Chan to be nominated as Kuomintang candidate for president rather than the more popular James Soong, who left the party and formed his own People First Party after both he and Lien were defeated by Chen Shui-bian in the presidential elections.After the election, there was widespread anger within the Kuomintang against Lee Teng-hui, who was expelled for forming his own pro-Taiwan independence party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union.On 24 February 2005, James Soong met with President Chen for the first time in four years and issued a 10-point declaration[7] supporting the name "Republic of China", the status quo in cross-strait relations, and the opening of the Three Links.The PFP's leader James Soong, despite being a member of the coalition, cooperated with Tsai Ing-wen's administration, becoming the representative of Chinese Taipei in the APEC summit.[10] Prior to the 2024 presidential election, prospects for ‘blue-white cooperation’ had been met with optimism from both parties, as they sought to jointly minimise the DPP’s chances of procuring a third consecutive term of presidency.[12] The division among Hou and Ko’s overlapping support bases eventually led to vote-splitting, culminating in their defeat and the victory of DPP’s Lai Ching-te, who holds dissimilar ideology with the other two candidates in major issues such as national defence and the view on the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement.[15] Despite this setback, an opposition coalition has still been established between the two parties in the Legislative Yuan since February 2024, forming a majority against the DPP’s minority government.