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 6th president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016.

Ma then returned to Taiwan 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.

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.

[1] In 1966, while a high school student, Ma decided to study law in college after being advised by his father to pursue a career similar to that of diplomat Wellington Koo.

[10] He passed with high marks on the General Scholastic Ability Test and entered National Taiwan University (NTU) in September 1968 to study law.

[20] Upon completing his master's degree at NYU, Ma enrolled in Harvard Law School as a doctoral student studying under professors Louis B. Sohn, Jerome A. Cohen, and Harold J.

[5] His doctoral thesis, completed in December 1980, was titled "Trouble over Oily Waters: legal problems of seabed boundaries and foreign investment in the East China Sea"[23] and was supervised by Sohn and Detlev F.

Ma was later promoted to the chair of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission under the Executive Yuan at the age of 38, becoming the youngest cabinet member in the ROC government.

In 1998, the KMT fielded Ma to challenge the then-incumbent Taipei mayor Chen Shui-bian of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who was seeking re-election.

In the 2000 presidential election, Ma remained loyal to the KMT and supported its candidate, Lien Chan, over James Soong, who had bolted from the party and was running as an independent.

[38] The election result, combined with other factors, incited a great deal of anger against Ma when he tried to dissuade discontented Lien and Soong supporters from protesting by appealing to them in his dual capacities as Taipei City mayor and a high-ranking KMT member.

[55] Nevertheless, his opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China, while other leaders of his party remained silent on the issue, led to him being banned from visiting Hong Kong to make a public speaking tour in 2005.

On 13 February 2007, Ma was indicted by the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office on charges of allegedly embezzling approximately NT$11 million (US$339,000), regarding the issue of "special expenses" while he was mayor of Taipei.

[76] On 5 April 2005, in an exclusive interview with CTV talk show host Sisy Chen, Ma said he wished to lead the opposition Kuomintang with Wang, if he were elected its chairman, as their support bases are complementary.

[82] Ma has also repeatedly stated that he had no plans to resign from the Taipei mayorship, even after he formally took over the chairmanship from incumbent Lien Chan during the 17th Party Congress of the KMT in August 2005.

In the election, the KMT won back the counties of Taipei and Yilan, and the city of Chiayi, which had been the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)'s strongholds for over twenty years.

[92] A week before the presidential election, incumbent President Chen Shui-bian vowed to quit if Ma could provide legal documents of the invalidation of his green card.

[101] Ma, in his inaugural address, laid out his promise in dealing with cross-strait relations that there would be "no reunification, no independence, and no war" (不統, 不獨, 不武) during his tenure as president.

Lien did not call Hu Jintao "President," but instead used his title "General Secretary" as the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the top position in PRC government.

On 15 December 2008, Taiwan and the Chinese mainland resumed direct sea, air, and mail links, ending an almost six-decade-long ban between the two sides on such trips.

But as these policies coincided with the global downturn and foreign investors had already bought Taiwan stocks heavily before the election, betting on the reforms, the island's market has seen a sell-off worse than the regional average.

[141][142] A probe was launched to investigate why government response was slow and inadequate, and vice foreign minister Andrew Hsia tendered his resignation to Ma's premier, Liu Chao-shiuan.

[151]On 11 October 2016, Ma's office announced that he had accepted an invitation to attend and become one of the speakers at the World Chinese Economic Summit in Malacca, Malaysia which would take place on 16–17 November 2016.

[153] In 2023, Ma became the first ROC leader to visit mainland China since the civil war of 1949, with a trip slated for 27 March to 7 April, pledging peace between the two countries.

[161] Yu was instrumental in negotiating, locating and working to free Taiwanese citizen Chang An-wei from Abu Sayyaf militants with Filipino special forces and private security contractors in 2013.

"[164] Perhaps to deflect heavy criticism from the Pan-Green Coalition, the KMT later published an advertisement in the Liberty Times recognizing that independence is an option for the Taiwanese people.

[166][167] Ma's spokesman said the president wanted to pay his respects to the Yellow Emperor on National Tomb-Sweeping Day in person to stress the importance of the Chinese ancestor-worshipping tradition.

However, others saw the precedent-making ceremonies at the Martyrs' Shrine as meant to be a show by President Ma of his unprofessed commitment to maintain a close relationship between Taiwan and mainland China.

[172] Ma has received criticism from the DPP, the opposition party, for allegedly praising the PRC on human rights, especially during the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.