Ma promises to promote KMT-CPC exchanges
By Xing Zhigang (China Daily/Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-07-18 05:30

On Saturday, Ma defeated "parliament speaker" Wang Yin-pyng, 64, in the party's first two-way direct elections for the chairmanship since its foundation in 1894. He is scheduled to take over from Lien in mid-August.

Ma won 72.4 per cent of votes against Wang's 27.6 per cent, with turnout of 518,324 voters from the party's one million members.

"When I become the chairman of the KMT I will lay out a comprehensive plan of reform which will enable the KMT to win back power in 2008," Ma told a news conference at Saturday night after the result was announced.

But the Hong Kong-born Ma stopped short of saying he will run for office himself, adding that the party can decide who it wants to be its contender at a later date.

With handsome, clean-cut looks and a Harvard law degree, Ma enjoys high popularity in the northern capital of Taipei. Many supporters see him as the opposition's best, and perhaps only, hope of wresting power back from the DPP.

Like Lien, Ma is a strong advocate of the KMT's policy of eventual unification between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, and has vowed to follow the path of Lien. Throughout his election campaign, Ma criticized the DPP's pro-"independence" policies and insisted an independent Taiwan is not an option.

Yin Cunyi, deputy director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Tsinghua University, said Ma's support for the one-China principle and opposition to "Taiwan independence" is conducive to maintaining Lien's cross-Straits policy.