quality:corruption
Ma Ying-jeou is a Taiwanese politician who served as the 6th president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. Previously, he served as the 14th justice minister from 1993 to 1996 and mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006. He served as chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 2005 to 2007 and from 2009 to 2014. Ma studied at National Taiwan University, where he received a Bachelor of Laws in 1972. He served in the military between 1972 and 1974, afterwards pursuing two graduate degrees in juridical science at New York University and Harvard University in the United States. He returned to Taiwan in 1981, where he started working for President Chiang Ching-kuo, first working at the presidential office. He was later appointed as the chair of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, then being appointed as Minister of Justice in 1993 until being relieved of his post in 1996. In 1998, he ran against incumbent Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taipei mayoral elections, defeating Chen. Ma was elected as the KMT chairman in 2005, until he resigned in 2007, when he announced his candidacy for the presidential elections of 2008. He was elected president, winning 58.45% of the popular vote and defeating DPP nominee Frank Hsieh. He was sworn into office as president on 20 May 2008, and was again sworn in as the Chairman of the Kuomintang on 17 October 2009. Ma's term as president saw warmer relations with mainland China, including the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement in 2010. He was re-elected in presidential elections 2012 with 51.6% of the vote, defeating DPP nominee Tsai Ing-wen. He resigned as chairman of Kuomintang on 3 December 2014 after poor performance by the party in local elections. In November 2015, Ma met with People's Republic of China paramount leader Xi Jinping in Singapore, the first time the leaders of People's Republic of China and Republic of China have met.