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New Party (Taiwan)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Shou (talk | contribs) at 03:38, 11 December 2002. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The New Party is a political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan. It split from the then-ruling Kuomintang in the early 1990s because of that party's shift away from Chinese reunification and because of corruption issues. Originally, the party wanted to name itself the New Kuomintang Alliance but was prevented from doing so due to the similarity of names. The name "New Party" was seemingly inspired by the contemporary electoral success of the Japanese political party Shin-to Sakigake ("New Party Renegades"; see Politics of Japan).

In the mid-1990s, the New Party attracted support from the KMT old guard as well as young urban professionals. However, intra-party struggles diminished the party's attraction. In 2000, most members of the party defected to support James Soong and his People First Party. With the growth of the People First Party and the movement of the Kuomintang back to reunification in 2001, the party was essentially annihilated in the legislative elections of December 2001, winning only one seat. The party seems to have reemerged in the recent December 2002 elections, where five of its six candidates for the Taipei City council won election with 9% of the vote.

As New Party grew out of Kuomintang, it is usually associated with the pan-blue coalition.

New Party official web site