Q:Facts: - spouse: viola chen -lrb- m. 1968 -- 2012 -rrb- - name: james -rrb- soong 24px people first party -lrb- 2000 -- - relations: soong ta -lrb- father -rrb- - alma mater: national catholic university of america georgetown university chengchi university university of california , berkeley the - occupation: politician Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of james soong .
A:
james soong chu-yu -lrb- ; born march 16 , 1942 -rrb- , is a politician in the republic of china on taiwan .he founded and chairs the people first party , a smaller party in the kuomintang -lrb- kmt -rrb- - led pan-blue coalition .born to a kuomintang military family of hunanese origin , soong began his political career as a secretary to premier chiang ching-kuo -lrb- later president -rrb- and rose to prominence as director-general of the government information office from 1979 to 1984 .upon chiang 's death soong was instrumental in silencing conservatives in the kmt from blocking the ascendancy of lee teng-hui as kmt leader .soong was the only elected governor of taiwan province from 1994 to 1998 , before the streamlining of the provincial government .he placed second in the 2000 presidential election ; his independent candidacy split the pro-chinese reunification vote between himself and the kmt candidate lien chan leading to the ascendency of democratic progressive party candidate chen shui-bian .in the 2004 presidential election , he ran as vice president on the ticket of kmt chairman lien chan ; they narrowly lost to chen shui-bian .soong ran again as a candidate in the 2012 presidential race , garnering 2.77 % of popular support .