Frank Hsieh - 2008 Presidential Campaign

2008 Presidential Campaign

See also: Republic of China presidential election, 2008

Hsieh was frequently considered to be a leading contender for the DPP nomination in the 2008 presidential election, and formally announced his intention to run in the election on February 16. Hsieh was the second to formally announce candidacy after former-KMT chairman Ma Ying-Jeou, and the first from the Democratic Progressive Party. He won 45% of the DPP primary votes and won the nomination, after the pending straw poll to be conducted May 9–11 was cancelled after his three primary opponents all conceded defeat. In July 2007, Frank Hsieh went on a trip to the United States called the trip of "Love and Trust" (「愛與信任」之旅). In September 2007, Hsieh openly declared that he was running for the presidency of the State of Taiwan (台灣國), saying that "recogniz ourselves (the Taiwanese people) as a nation first and then fight for what we want during negotiations with other countries" is important.

Hsieh has been granted many Taiwanese aboriginal names by many indigenous tribe leaders during his visits to the tribes, such as Tin Kei in Amis, V'oyu in Tsou, Hayung in Atayal, and Shaman Manida in Tao.

Regarding Ma Ying-jeou's idea of a "cross-strait common market," Hsieh states that if Taiwan only focuses on the economy, it will end up like Hong Kong and Macau, whose only goal in life is to make money. Hsieh believes that improving the economy is as important as preserving national dignity, and that the goal of economic development is more than just making money, but it is also improving the happiness of people.

Following the DPP's poor performance in the 2008 Legislative election, Hsieh replaced Chen Shui-bian as chairman of the DPP.

In January 2008, Hsieh accused candidate Ma Ying-Jeou of having a United States green card. After investigations, it was revealed that one of Ma's sisters and one of his two daughters are both US citizens. Hsieh also publicly expressed that if Ma shows him the official document of his withdrawal of the green card, Hsieh would withdraw from the election.

On March 22, 2008, Hsieh lost to the Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou, ending eight years of DPP rule. Hsieh had 5,445,239 votes, 41.55%; against Ma's 7,658,724, 58.45%.

The election was devastating to Hsieh and the DPP because he lost by a wider-than-expected margin of 17%. Hsieh had stated that if he lost this election, he would not run for office again. He resigned from the DPP chairmanship to take responsibility for the defeat. Tsai Ing-wen was elected as the new chairperson of the DPP.

In July 2010, Hsieh stood for the DPP's central committee standing membership election and won. He subsequently became a de facto manager of DPP's Taichung mayoralty campaign.