HLS Grad Sworn in as Taiwan's Leader

Ying-jeou Ma—a 1981 Law School graduate known as the “Teflon-man” because of his shrewd politics and his suave way with journalists—was inaugurated Tuesday as Taiwan’s new president.

Law School professor William P. Alford praised Ma’s election in March in a press release on the Law School’s Web site.

“It not only affirmed democracy but elevated to the presidency Dr. Ma Ying-jeou—a person of real intelligence, probity, and ingenuity,” Alford said. “Even 30 years ago, when we were students at Harvard Law School, it was clear that he would be making his mark on the world.”

Ma is part of a distinguished line of Law School graduates who have left a prominent mark on the development of legal systems in Taiwan.

Along with Ma, former Vice President Annette Hsiu-lien Lu, Grand Justice Lai In-jaw, and the civic leader Eric Tung-sheng Wu are all Law School graduates.

Ma was born in Hong Kong to a family with political connections to the island’s then-ruling party the Kuomingtang. He moved to Taiwan when he was a year old.

After attending the National Taiwan University, he attended the New York University School of Law and then Harvard Law School. At Harvard Law School, he wrote his dissertation on the problem of extracting oil from the East China Sea and was involved with the Environmental Law Review.

“I thought it was very good, very solid and very sensible both legally and politically,” Law School Professor Emeritus Detlev F. Vagts ’49, one of Ma’s former supervisors, said of his dissertation. Recalling that Ma was “always friendly and respectful,” Vagts recounted a story in which a journalist in Taiwan had obtained Ma’s paper and asked Vagts if he could justify his praise of the paper in light of “all the typos.” He responded, “Typos really don’t matter that much when you’re picking a president.”

After stints as an associate on Wall Street and a professor in Taiwan, Ma worked first as an English translator to then-president Chiang Ching-kuo. Later, at age 38, he became the youngest member of the cabinet when he was appointed as the chair of the Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission. He then served as the Justice Minister from 1993 to 1996, as the Mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006, and Chairman of Kuomintang from 2005 to 2007, before being elected Taiwan’s president.

Throughout his political career, Ma has been famous for his anti-corruption reforms and promotion of clean government, which earned him the nickname “Mr. Clean.” Ma is also known for his “One China, different interpretations” policy that has balanced the stances of the People’s Republic of China and the pro-independence faction at home.

—Staff writer H.K. Seo can be reached at hkseo@fas.harvard.edu.