In March 1996, voters across China would cast a ballot for President (along with Vice President). This was the first direct election for president in Chinese history. It was also the first where the entire country would have free and fair elections. Campaigning and politicking began long before the actual election. Incumbent Li Ao began campaigning in the summer in order to recapture his cratering support. Newspapers were starting to predict the election to be a contest between the KMT and the CDSP. His own Vice President was considering running his own campaign, or even rejoining the KMT. There were even some within the Liberal Party who were considering dumping Li. Li gave speeches throughout the country. In particular, he visited places like Beiping, Shanghai, and Wuhan, places that were important in the 1989 protests. He gave a patriotic speech in Nanking after the military parade on the fiftieth anniversary of V-J Day.
Most parties had their leadership elections and presidential nominations in September. The China Youth Party ended up voting to continue supporting Li Ao. Lin Yang-kang had decided to be Li Ao’s running mate. Opposition to Li within the Liberal Party turned out to be marginal. The China Democratic Socialist Party had soured on Li Ao, and had left the governing coalition. 1990 Vice Presidential nominee Chen Chongguang became party leader and was nominated for president. He, like Li Ao, was associated with the 1989 protests (he was even arrested). His running mate would be member of the Legislative Yuan Song Defu from Fujian. The New Democratic League renominated their 1990 candidate Yang Rudai for president and nominated Labor organizer and former Tangshan Mayor Wang Zhaoguo for Vice President.
The Kuomintang convention commenced to much fanfare as the party sought to regain the presidency. Chiang Hsiao-wen, the oldest son of Chiang Ching-kuo, had died in 1992. His younger son, Chiang Hsiao-wu, was still alive and planned on running for president. Party leader Lien Chan, member of the Legislative Yuan and former Secretary of the Interior, ran as well. He ran on a return to normalcy. General Wang Wenxie ran. His support from the Kung family and Minkuo Electronics was notable. Political Scientist Wei Yong ran a campaign on foreign policy. It soon became obvious that the nomination would be a contest between Chiang Hsiao-wu and Lien Chan. Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo were extremely popular in the party. However, Lien Chan had built up a considerable base of support in the last six years. He won the nomination on the second ballot. Chiang Hsiao-wu recommended National Assembly member James Soong as the Vice-Presidential nominee, and Lien Chan agreed.
There were other minor candidates who ran. Lee Teng-hui and Chen Li-an considered campaigns, but they ultimately withdrew from the race. Chen, independent governor of Zhejiang, would rejoin the KMT. Polls showed Lien Chan at 41%, Li Ao at 24%, Chen Chongguang at 18%, and Yang Rudai at 4%. Lien was obviously going to finish in first place, with Li or Chen finishing in second place. After that, there would be a runoff. The New Democratic League had lost a lot of support once authoritarianism had ended. Lien Chan, convinced that Li was his more formidable opponent, focused his attention on the president. Chen tried to unite the left and made appeals to NDL voters. Li would focus most of his rhetoric against Lien, but he would also seek to take voters away from Chen and the CDSP.
Li Ao was elated by the news from the Soviet Union. He took credit for the democratic revolution in Moscow, saying that it was a result of the Summer 1989 Protests. In October he flew to the Soviet Union to meet with leaders of the interim government. At the same time, Mongolia announced that it would begin to depart from the Stalinist model and introduced political and economic reforms. This was also hailed by Li as a foreign policy success. Li’s support was rising, though it was nowhere close to Lien Chan. The media, even if it was far less biased than in 1990, was on Lien’s side. Actor, singer, and director Liu Chia-chang appeared with Lien Chan at a rally in Li Ao’s hometown of Harbin. Li supporters heckled both men and some protesters had to be removed from the rally. While Lien Chan had his own rallies, Li Ao had bigger rallies. Chen Chongguang would also have a hard time attracting large crowds.
In November, elections for the National Assembly were held. Since this legislative body no longer elected the president, the election had very low turnout. The Kuomintang won a slight majority of seats, with a plurality of 46% of the popular vote. Lien Chan’s running mate James Soong became President of the National Assembly. This inspired Li Ao to campaign more aggressively. As the time drew closer to the presidential election, the candidates mainly focused their efforts in the Central and East-Central provinces. Shanghai, China’s largest city, saw the most campaigning of anywhere. The top provinces for campaign visits and spending were Jiangsu, Henan, Hebei, Hubei, and Anhui. and Sichuan. Li Ao also targeted Beiping, which was dominated by the CDSP. The NDL focused on the less populous provinces that received less attention from the main candidates.
Two debates were held in January and February. At the first debate Yang Rudai was not invited, and his supporters protested. He was allowed into the second, though he claimed he was given less time than the other three participants. These debates are not regarded to have made a huge difference in the final results. The candidates all did respectively, without any shining moments or major gaffes. Lien Chan had to face questions relating to his culpability (or lack thereof) in KMT authoritarianism. Attacks against KMT candidates from the authoritarianism angle were largely unsuccessful. KMT candidates would bring up corruption and wiretapping scandals in the Li Ao administration in response. Each of the four candidates’ campaigns declared them to the winners of the debates.
The first round came in March. Lien unsurprisingly came in first place with almost 44%. His campaign was expecting a slightly better result, however. Li Ao came in second with almost over 28%. Chen Chongguang and Yang Rudai came in third and fourth place in 22% and 5% respectively. 310 Legislative Yuan seats were won by the KMT, 119 were won by the CDSP, 98 were won by the liberal Party 91 were won by the CYP, 23 were won by the NDL, 5 were won by independents, and 4 were won by the Tibet Improvement Party. 146 seats would be decided by a runoff. The KMT flipped the governorships of Fujian, Hainan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Xikang, and Anhui, with many more to be decided by runoff. Li Ao would need to get the overwhelming majority of Chen and Yang supporters to support him.
Presidential Election of 1990, First Round
President | Vice-President | Votes |
Lien Chan (KMT-Liaoning) | James Soong (KMT-Hunan) | 217,305,876 (43.9%) |
Li Ao (I-Songjiang) | Lin Yang-kang (CYP-Taiwan) | 142,065,573 (28.7%) |
Chen Chongguang (CDSP-Hubei) | Song Defu (CDSP-Fujian) | 109,395,441 (22.1%) |
Yang Rudai (NDL-Sichuan) | Wang Zhaoguo (NDL-Hebei) | 25,740,103 (5.2%) |
Others [1] | Others | 495,002 (0.1%) |
Fortunately for Li, he received the endorsement of both Chen Chongguang and Yang Rudai. These were not enthusiastic endorsements, only that the two men considered him more tolerable than Lien. They would not do much else to help Li and some CDSP officials openly supported Lien. Polling immediately after the first round showed Lien leading Li 51-43%, but polling tightened as the weeks went on. Both candidates began to use some left-wing rhetoric in order to win over disillusioned leftist voters considering staying home. This was widely seen as insincere, however. Leftists who felt it to be their duty to vote would have to choose which candidate they viewed as the lesser of two evils. The candidates and their supporters held rallies and gave speeches throughout the country. Li Ao ended his campaign in Zhengzhou, Henan, Lin Yang-kang ended his campaign in Yuchi, Taiwan, Lien Chan ended his campaign in Shenyang, Liaoning, and James Soong ended his campaign in Shanghai, Jiangsu. On April 21, 1996, the results came in...
1: These would include write-ins and regional candidates.