Ma Ying-jeou << mah yeeng joh >> (1950-…) is a lawyer and politician who was president of Taiwan from 2008 to 2016. He had previously served as mayor of Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, from 1998 to 2006.
Ma Ying-jeou was born in Hong Kong, which was then a British colony and is now part of China, on July 13, 1950. He and his family moved to Taiwan the following year. In 1972, Ma received a bachelor’s degree in law from National Taiwan University. He then traveled to the United States for graduate study. He earned a master’s degree in law from New York University in 1976 and a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School in 1981. Ma then returned to Taiwan.
In 1981, Ma was selected to serve as secretary and English interpreter for President Chiang Ching-kuo. In 1984, Ma became deputy secretary-general of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang (KMT, also known as the Nationalist Party). He worked closely with Chiang in the 1987 lifting of martial law (government under military rule). Martial law had been in place since the KMT established a government in Taiwan in 1949. See Taiwan (History) .
Ma was appointed minister of justice in 1993. In this position, he began a campaign to crack down on political corruption. The campaign faced resistance from within the KMT, and Ma was removed from this position in 1996. In 1996 and 1997, he served as minister without portfolio—that is, as a minister without a specific area of responsibility. Ma briefly left politics in 1997. In 1997 and 1998, he taught law at Taipei’s National Chengchi University.
In 1998, Ma returned to politics and unseated Chen Shui-bian as mayor of Taipei. Ma was reelected in 2002. In 2005, the Kuomintang elected Ma as its chairman. His term as mayor of Taipei ended in 2006. In 2007, Ma stepped down as head of the KMT after he was accused of forgery and embezzlement. He fought the charges and was found innocent.
The Kuomintang selected Ma as its presidential candidate in the 2008 election. He won the election and took office on May 20, 2008. In 2009, he was reelected as KMT chairman. He was reelected president in January 2012.
As president, Ma worked to improve Taiwan’s relations with the People’s Republic of China and made progress in securing economic cooperation with a number of countries. In November 2014, Taiwan held mayoral elections in which the Kuomintang suffered a sizable defeat. Ma resigned as chairman of the KMT in December, though he remained in office as president until his term ended in May 2016. In 2023, Ma became the first former or current president of Taiwan to visit the People’s Republic of China.
