On 16 July 2005, Ma Ying-jeou, a second-generation Mainlander, was elected chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT). By then, the old Chinese Nationalist Party had been chaired for nearly eighteen years by two Taiwanese politicians, Lee Teng-hui and Lien Chan. Ma’s 2005 victory over the alternative candidate for KMT chairmanship, Wang Chin-ping, another native Taiwanese, and a popular legislative speaker, was an indication of the persistence of the Mainlanders’ influence over the KMT, at a time when the KMT was distancing itself from Lee Teng-hui’s legacy and the spirit of Taiwanization. And since Ma was inaugurated as president in May 2008, the government of the Republic of China on Taiwan has again seen a significant increase in the percentage of cabinet members of Mainlander origin.