Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would lead her Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) opponent, Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), by nearly 30 percentage points if they are the only two participants in next year’s presidential election, according to a poll released by the Taiwan Thinktank yesterday.
The survey predicted that Tsai would garner 54.2 percent of votes against Hung’s 24.6 percent if they were to compete one-on-one in January’s election.
While Tsai’s support would decline to 43.8 percent if People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) enters the race, she would still maintain a wide margin against Sung’s 21.7 percent and Hung’s 21.6 percent.
The survey was released as the KMT confirmed Hung as its presidential candidate during its party congress in Taipei yesterday afternoon.
Meanwhile, in regional legislative elections, the survey showed that the DPP enjoyed the highest amount of support at 27.8 percent, followed by the KMT with 20.3 percent, the third political force with 5.2 percent and the PFP with 4.3 percent.
Support for the DPP increased to 35.6 percent when respondents were asked which party they would cast a party vote for, while the KMT and PFP received 24.6 percent and 9.2 percent respectively.
Commenting on the results, Soochow University associate professor of political science Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) — a member of the recently formed New Power Party (NPP) — said Soong’s perceived willingness to run for president has greatly boosted the momentum for his party.
“However, the third political force’s failure to present a presidential candidate could lead to them being left out or marginalized in the upcoming race. It is vital that they focus on issues conducive to heating up the legislative elections,” Hsu said.
Asked to rate their level of support for Taiwanese independence on a scale from zero to 10 — zero signifying a desire for immediate cross-strait unification and 10 for immediate independence — respondents returned an average score of 5.8.
Respondents were of the opinion that Tsai is leaning toward independence, as reflected by the score of 6.4 they gave her, while Soong and Hung received 4.4 and 3.4 respectively.
In addition, about 62.7 percent of those polled believed that Soong could maintain the cross-strait “status quo,” while 60.1 percent said they were more confident in Tsai’s ability to do so.
Meanwhile, 40.4 percent of respondents said Hung was favoring unification with China.
Political affiliation did not seem to be a factor when asked about allowing one political party to control both the Presidential Office and the Legislative Yuan, with 52.7 percent of those polled being against it, while 36.5 percent were in favor.
“The results of the poll could be due to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) lackluster performance and the legislative chaos that occurred during his time in office, despite the KMT being fully in control of both branches of the government,” Taiwan Thinktank deputy executive director Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) said.
The telephone-based poll collected 1,112 valid samples and was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday last week. It has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft