On a scale of 0 to 100, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his Cabinet team received 55.1 points for overall performance, a poll in the Chinese-language Global Views magazine showed yesterday.
Although the score of 55.1 was a 4.4-point improvement on December last year, when asked to compare the Ma administration's performance with that two years ago, only 27.3 percent of respondents said it had improved, while 31.3 percent said it had not and 35.7 percent did not see any change, the figures showed.
The poll, conducted by the Global Views Survey Research Center, put Ma's popularity at 30.4 percent, up 3.8 percentage points from last month. His disapproval rating dropped 2.5 percentage points, but remained high at 58.9 percent.
Ma's trust index grew 5.2 percentage points from last month to 42.3 percent, against his distrust index of 44.5 percent — down 0.2 percentage points.
The pollster attributed the change to Ma’s “better-than-expected” performance in the April 25 debate with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
Despite the high disapproval rating of the Ma government's performance, the poll showed that 45.3 percent of respondents thought the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would do a better job of protecting Taiwan’s interests and developing cross-strait peace than the DPP, which polled 29.9 percent.
The poll also showed that more people were happy with Ma's cross-strait policy than foreign policy, with 47.8 percent believing cross-strait policy to have been successful and only 43.4 percent feeling the same way about foreign policy as a whole.
Former director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Douglas Paal said in Washington last month that the US should invite Ma to attend the APEC summit in Honolulu in November next year.
Nearly 52 percent of respondents agreed that Ma should discuss Taiwan’s future and cross-strait relations with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) before the end of his term, against 34.7 percent who disapproved and 13.9 percent who had no opinion.
Though high, these figures still represented a 16.8 percent fall in the number favoring a Ma-Hu summit and a 19.1 percent increase in those who did not want to see such a meeting.
On the performance of the Cabinet, Premier Wu Den-yih's (吳敦義) popularity edged up 1.4 percentage points from last month to 42.7 percent. However, his disapproval rating also increased 3.6 percentage points to 42.6 percent.
Only 31.2 percent of respondents found the performance of Cabinet officials satisfactory, while 50.2 percent said they were not satisfied. The numbers were, however, still an improvement on last month.
The poll was conducted from May 13 to May 16 and 1,010 adults were questioned nationwide.
Ma yesterday marked the second anniversary of his inauguration with a visit to an elementary school in Hsinchu. The school educates physically and mentally challenged students together with normal children.
While Hsinchu is the only county that offers such an education, Ma said he had instructed the Ministry of Education to evaluate the possibility of expanding it.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Paal said that Ma had transformed one of the Asia-Pacific’s hot spots — the Taiwan Strait — into “an area of unprecedented peace and growing prosperity while not letting down Taiwan's guard.”
“This is something Americans truly appreciate,” he said.
Paal said that transitioning Taiwan's laws and institutions to meet the economic challenges and opportunities of the global community continues to be a work in progress.
Under Ma, Taiwan’s government is positioning itself closer to the interests of Taiwan's economic leaders “while taking care of those at risk of falling behind,” Paal said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS