In a contest organized by the U.S. State Department, the winner, a Chinese political dissent, characterized democracy as a gradually improving game in which an independent identity and organization seeks to optimize its interests through transparent means other than violence. By this definition, many people question whether Taiwan under the leadership of President Ma Ying-jeou is still a democracy. The people of Taiwan have long forsaken violent means, but the ruling Kuomintang resorted to violence to push through a revision of the Local Government Act in the legislature recently. The transparency of policy-making is ignored by Ma's administration, which kept secret the content of its proposed trade pact with China and refused to send it to the legislature for approval after it was wrapped up. Furthermore, the wealth gap is widening under Ma's administration, owing to Ma's policy of seeking detente with China, which benefits the country's giant companies at the cost of the little man. Under the governance of Ma's administration, Taiwan is regressing in both democracy and economy. When they dip to the levels of China, it will be time for Beijing to annex Taiwan. 