Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) enjoys much more popular support than Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hopeful Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), according to a poll conducted by the Cross-Strait Policy Association.
Tsai led Hung by 50.2 percent to 29.3 percent, the poll found.
TVBS had released a different poll on Wednesday showing Hung leading.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
The DPP chairperson outperformed the deputy legislative speaker in all six indicators gauging the two candidates’ “image” in the eyes of respondents, association secretary-general Anson Hung (洪耀南) said.
Anson Hung is also a former chief executive officer of Xfuture.org, also known as the Future Events Exchange (未來事件交易所), which bases its predictions on “prediction markets.”
On leadership, Tsai won a support rating of 45.5 percent against Hung Hsiu-chu’s 31.5 percent; on ability to safeguard Taiwan’s interests, 44.7 percent to 31.6 percent; trustworthiness, 47.3 percent to 32.6 percent; policy feasibility, 39.3 percent to 34.3 percent; understanding of public opinion, 48.6 percent to 28.9 percent; and global perspective, 58.9 percent to 18.6 percent.
In an additional category — cross-strait policy acceptability — the survey used the candidates’ descriptions of their respective cross-strait policy to gauge public opinion.
Again, Tsai found greater support for her stance.
The poll described Tsai’s cross-strait policy as “maintaining the ‘status quo,’ which is to establish consistent, predictable and sustainable cross-strait relations under the Republic of China’s constitutional system.”
Hung Hsiu-chu’s cross-strait policy was described as: “one China, common interpretations (一中同表)” and defining the cross-strait relationship as “two constitutional governments in a whole China.”
Tsai gained an approval rating of 63.1 percent, while 22.4 percent said they disapproved.
Just 31.2 percent of respondents supported the deputy legislative speaker’s cross-strait view, with 51.7 percent disagreeing.
“Tsai, in both global perspective and cross-strait policy, holds a lead of 30 to 40 percentage points, which is quite rare, as the KMT usually has the whip hand on these two issues,” association president Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said.
Hung has been inching toward the “deep blue” voters, which can be seen with her cross-strait policy, but her strategy has harmed her popularity among swing voters, Tung said.
“On cross-strait relations, Tsai won more support than disapproval, regardless of party affiliation,” he added. “About 88.2 percent of pan-green voters, 48.6 percent of pan-blue voters and 47.7 percent of neutral voters agreed with Tsai on her cross-strait view, while only 13.3 percent of pan-greens, 61 percent of pan-blues and 19.6 percent of neutral voters agreed with Hung’s.”
Tung said that Hung Hsiu-chu might be considered “outspoken” for her stance, but “Taiwanese doubt her [ability] to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty, dignity and interests.”
Generally speaking, the challenger is usually the one who criticizes the ruling party’s policy, and the ruling party candidate supports existing policy. However, Hung Hsiu-chu is the one who is challenging the existing system,” Tung said. “She has said she would propose signing a peace treaty [with China], but we have seen President Ma [Ying-jeou, 馬英九] make the same proposal in 2011, but backtracked after meeting strong opposition.”
“Regarding her ‘one China, common interpretation,’ we all know that there lacks a consensus between [Taiwan and China] over ‘one China,’ which is why the Ma administration has resorted to its ‘1992 consensus’ and ‘respective interpretations’ to obfuscate the issue. However, Hung [Hsiu-chu] is going against the trend by calling for a ‘common interpretation,’ which China would be more than willing to accept. Apparently the definition of the ‘common interpretation’ would not be up to Hung [Hsiu-chu], who would be pressured to adopt China’s ‘one China’ principle,” Tung said.
Association vice president Justin Chen (陳建仲) said that Ma’s low popularity and KMT infighting would be major stumbling blocks.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS