| Ma elected KMT new leader; Hu congratulates him(Agencies/chinadaily.com.cn)
 Updated: 2005-07-16 20:17
 
 
 
 
 Ma, a 
former "justice minister", is a strong advocate of the KMT' policy of eventual 
unification across the Straits.
 |  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "Lawmaker" Wang Jin-pyng
 |  Throughout his campaign against Wang, he criticized the DPP's policies of 
strengthening Taiwan's status as a self-governing entity and underscoring the 
non-Chinese aspects of its culture and history. 
 Ma, handsome and charismatic, has long been groomed by party leaders to run 
for the power. 
 "Ma is the hope of our party," office worker Betty Sun said after casting her 
ballot on Saturday. 
 Born in Hong Kong to parents from the Chinese mainland, Ma fits firmly into 
the Nationalists' traditional mold as the party of the mainland elite, somewhat 
removed from the majority of the population which traces its roots to ethnic 
Chinese whose forbears migrated to Taiwan beginning in the 1600s. 
 Saturday's poll came less than three months after a groundbreaking visit 
to the mainland by Lien, who in the twilight of his career attempted 
to broker a meaningful reconciliation between the KMT and CPC. 
 Images of Lien being feted by President Hu Jintao and other senior 
Chinese officials raised expectations among many of 23 million 
Taiwan people that the time had come to find a way of finding 
solutions to peaceful unification. 
 
 
 
 
  
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