The party emerged from the Sunflower Student Movement in 2014, and advocates for universal human rights, civil and political liberties, as well as Taiwan independence/nationalism.

[6] Nevertheless, the NPP's policies are very much aligned with and closely match the Pan-Green camp; thus the NPP cooperated with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) against the Kuomintang (KMT) in the 2016 elections, going as far as not to run in traditional KMT strongholds to avoid competition with the DPP.

[8] The party was started by Freddy Lim, lead vocalist of Taiwanese heavy metal band Chthonic,[9] veteran activist Michael Lin, human rights lawyers Lin Feng-cheng [zh], Chiu Hsien-chih, and other prominent figures of the Sunflower Student Movement.

[9] The NPP supports the legalization of same-sex marriage and is generally in favor of abolition of capital punishment.

Freddy Lim and Hung Tzu-yung left the NPP in August 2019, though both remained independent members of the Ninth Legislative Yuan and chose to align with the DPP.

[21] The party nominated candidates for mayor and magisterial posts for the first time prior to the 2022 local elections.