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Ma Ying-jeou (Chinese: 馬英九; pinyin: Mǎ Yīngjiǔ; // ⓘ Ma-ING-gee-oh;[1] born 13 July 1950) is a Taiwanese politician, lawyer, and legal scholar who served as the sixth president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. A member of the Kuomintang (KMT), he was previously the mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006 and the chairman of the Kuomintang for two terms (2005–2007; 2009–2014).
Ma was born in British Hong Kong to a waishengren family that moved to Taiwan in 1952. After graduating from National Taiwan University, Ma joined the Republic of China Marine Corps and attained the rank of lieutenant. He then studied law in the United States, where he earned a master's degree from New York University in 1976 and his doctorate from Harvard University in 1981. Ma returned to Taiwan afterwards and began working for President Chiang Ching-kuo as a bureau director and English translator at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei.
From 1988 to 1996, Ma held office first as chair of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, becoming the youngest cabinet member in the ROC at age 38, and then as head of the Ministry of Justice, where he launched anti-corruption and anti-drug campaigns. In the 1998 Taipei mayoral election, he successfully ran against incumbent Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). During his mayoralty, he was elected as KMT chairman in 2005 and left the position in 2007 to announce his candidacy in the 2008 Taiwanese presidential election, eventually defeating DPP nominee Frank Hsieh in a landslide majority of 58.45 percent.[2]
Ma's presidency was defined by closer cross-strait relations with mainland China. He initiated a series of cross-strait summits (2008–2015) with the mainland, was elected again as party chairman in 2009, and signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 2010. After defeating Tsai Ing-wen and being re-elected in the 2012 presidential election, Ma's second term saw the September 2013 power struggle and the Sunflower Student Movement protests damage party reputation in the 2014 elections, leading to his resignation as KMT chair. Subsequently, he held the 2015 Ma–Xi meeting in Singapore, marking the first meeting between the leaders of the PRC and ROC since the Chinese Civil War. After leaving the presidency in 2016, Ma became a law professor at Soochow University and has remained active in KMT politics.
- ^ Bradsher, Keith (24 March 2008). "Discipline First for Taiwan's New Leader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
- ^ Ling, L.H.M.; Hwang, Ching-Chane; Chen, Boyu (1 January 2010). "Subaltern straits: 'exit', 'voice', and 'loyalty' in the United States–China–Taiwan relations". International Relations of the Asia-Pacific. 10 (1). Oxford University Press: 33–59. doi:10.1093/irap/lcp013. ISSN 1470-482X.