Ma first won the presidency by 58.45% of the popular vote in the presidential election of 2008, and was re-elected in 2012 with 51.6% of the vote. He was sworn into office as president on 20 May 2008, and sworn in as the Chairman of the Kuomintang on 17 October 2009; he resigned as Chairman of Kuomintang on 3 December 2014. Ma's term as president saw warmer relations with Mainland China. He became the first ROC Head of State to meet with a Communist Party General Secretary when he met Xi Jinping in Singapore in November 2015.