Taiwan presidential election, 2004 in Masked Pickle's A Giant Sucking Sound: a President Perot TL
Formation of the tickets
Democratic Progressive Party
Despite having come from the traditionally pro-independence DPP, President Hsu Hsin-liang has been credited (and criticized) for his willingness to recognize a "broader definition" of the 1992 consensus, vastly improving relations with China. The
Three Links was widely seen as one of the major contributions of the Hsu administration. At the same time, Hsu pushes for environmental regulations, controversial pension reforms, and the Taiwan Localization Project - beginning with a more Taiwan-centered school curriculum, de-Chiangization, as well as the inclusion of the word "TAIWAN" on ROC passports, despite his claims that all these does not affect the 1992 consensus.
Hsu's approval rating in late 2003 was at a mediocre 43%, with a disapproval rating of 36%. However, he was considerably more popular than most of his possible opponents from the KMT, as well as pro-independence hardliners within the DPP.
Kuomintang
The KMT has yet to recover for the losses of the presidency in 2000 and the Legislative Yuan in 2001 (Shih Ming-yeh was only elected Speaker with the help of the New Party in 1998). In February 2003, KMT chairman James Soong announced his intention to stay out of the 2004 election, feeling that President Hsu would beat him in yet another landslide if he's the candidate. Hsinchu Mayor Lin Jung-tzer and former Kaohsiung Mayor Wu Den-yih were seen as the frontrunners in the election. freshman Taipei mayor Ting Shou-chung, who defeated DPP nominee Tuan Yi-kang in 2002 by 1,500 votes, wanted to focus on his mayoralty. Infighting continued between the localist faction of Lee Teng-hui and the pan-Chinese faction of James Soong, leading to the defection of many localists to the ruling DPP.
In a bitter presidential primary between Lin Jung-tzer and Wu Den-yih, Wu was eventually declared as the winner after securing key support of John Chiang, son of late President Chiang Ching-kuo.
The Campaign
From the beginning, Wu was trailing President Hsu by wide margins, and his campaign was taunted by internal infighting. President Hsu was reelected by a comfortable 11-point margin.
Aftermath
Following Hsu's re-election, the remnants of the localist faction of the KMT joined hands with the DPP to push for constitutional reform in the ad hoc National Assembly, which did not touch on the question of sovereignty and independence.
Together with the localist faction of the KMT, the "Pan-Green coalition" controlled a supermajority of seats in the Legislative Yuan following the 2004 legislative elections. In 2005, former President Lee Teng-hui withdrew from the KMT, citing irreconcilable differences. Most of his localist followers (but not Lee himself) joined the DPP en masse.