Another poll, released yesterday, showed the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) presidential ticket featuring President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) to be neck-and-neck with the pan-blue ticket featuring Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
The poll conducted by the pro-blue China Times newspaper comes in the wake of another conducted by the DPP, released last Friday, showing similar results.
The China Times poll, conducted on Dec. 5 showed that public support for the Chen-Lu ticket was 34 percent, while that of the KMT-PFP Lien-Soong ticket stood at 36 percent. However, about 30 percent of those questioned remained undecided.
The poll also found that after tense partisan feuding over the passage of the Referendum Law the pan-green and pan-blue camps still managed to maintain their base of support.
Analysis of the poll indicated that both the ruling and opposition camps have mobilized their rank-and-file supporters in great intensity, especially the DPP which has conducted its mobilization with the most vigor.
Analysis also suggested that Chen's increased support was due to his appeal to a Taiwan-centered consciousness. This was highlighted by both aa large-scale march in October organized by the pan-green camp in support of the referendum law and a new constitution as well as the battle for the referendum law in the legislature, the newspaper said.
The same survey showed, that given the choice of identifying themselves as Taiwanese, Chinese or both Taiwanese and Chinese, the proportion of people identifying themselves as Taiwanese had risen from 37 percent in late October to 50 percent.
Those who considered themselves both Taiwanese and Chinese had dropped from 48 percent in late October to 38 percent.
The poll did not, however, show the figures for people identifying themselves as Chinese.
Chen's campaign was in buoyant mood after the release of the poll.
DPP Deputy Secretary General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) comparing details of Chen's national support rate in the 2000 presidential election wit the results of recent polls, said Chen's popularity had gained steadily nation-wide, especially in central Taiwan's Taichung, Changhua and Nantou counties and the southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung City, Kaohsiung County and Pingtung County.
Analyzing the recent gains in public support, director of the DPP's Public Opinion Survey Center Chen Chun-lin (陳俊麟) said the strengthening of support in southern Taiwan was largely as a result of the use of sovereignty-related strategies, such as the holding of a "defensive referendum."
Chen Chun-lin said people in central Taiwan tended to be more concerned with the government's ability to initiate and complete local infrastructure construction and were favorably impressed by the DPP's record.
In the Hakka-populated Miaoli, Hsinchu and Taoyuan areas, he said that, since the Hakka communities were highly clannish, the party would focus on expanding connections with local Hakka clan leaders.
As for the urban Taipei area, where a majority of residents are mainlanders and as a result the area has shown more support for the pan-blue ticket, Chen Chun-lin said the city's residents were more influenced by the media which has been widely criticized for its pan-blue bias.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the