The file photo dated Feb. 13, 2001, shows visiting Mayor of Taipei Ma Ying-jeou in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Ma won enough votes to become the new leader of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party in Taipei July 16, 2005. (Photo source: Xinhua)

　　The file photo dated Feb. 11, 2001, shows visiting Mayor of Taipei Ma Ying-jeou speaks at a reception celebrating the fifth founding anniversary of the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.(Photo source: Xinhua) 　　

　　BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Ma Ying-jeou, an incumbent vice chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang Party (KMT) and Taipei Mayor, was elected as the new chairman of KMT in Taiwan Saturday.

　　Ma defeated another candidate, Wang Jyn-pyng, an incumbent vicechairman of KMT, by winning 72.36 percent of votes in Saturday's election, to take over as head of KMT from retiring Chairman Lien Chan.

　　Born in Hong Kong July 1950 to parents from Hunan Province on the Chinese mainland, Ma graduated from the Department of Law in Taiwan University, and then got the master's degree of law in New York University and doctor's degree of law in Harvard.

　　He used to be the English interpreter for Chiang Ching-kuo, late leader of KMT in Taiwan.

　　Ma was the vice secretary-general of KMT Central Committee between 1984 and 1988, and elected as Taipei Mayor in December 1998 and reelected in 2002.

　　He was elected as the vice chairman of KMT in March 2003. Enditem