A survey released yesterday found 52.7 percent of respondents said that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) failed to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore on Saturday last week.
The poll, conducted by Taiwan Indicator Survey Research, also found that 56.2 percent of respondents said that Ma’s statement in the meeting does not represent their views, with only 22.2 percent saying that Ma represented their views.
The poll showed that almost half of the respondents — 49.6 percent — agreed that the Ma-Xi meeting benefited China, while only 20 percent said they believed the meeting benefited Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
Only 28.6 percent of the poll’s respondents agreed with the statement that “both sides across the Strait belong to one China,” which Xi declared in the meeting’s closed-door discussion session, while 58.4 percent disagreed, the poll showed.
Although Ma repeatedly emphasized that he had “said all that should be said” in the meeting and that he had not only addressed the “one China, with each side having its own interpretation” (一中各表) formula, but had also reiterated the Republic of China’s sovereignty, only 30.2 percent believe that Ma had defended national sovereignty and dignity, the poll said.
The poll also showed that 42 percent of respondents said that Ma is “pro-unification,” the highest percentage on record since July 2011.
However, the poll also showed that 73 percent of respondents support regular meetings between Taiwan and China’s leaders, while only 14.5 percent said they oppose such meetings.
Meanwhile, the poll found Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) continued to pull further ahead of her opponents with 46.2 percent support.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) has 20.4 percent support, while People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) trailed at 10.4 percent, the poll said.
The survey collected 1,004 valid samples from Sunday through Tuesday and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
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
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
DANGEROUS DRIVERS: The proposal follows a fatal incident on Monday involving a 78-year-old driver, which killed three people and injured 12 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said it would lower the age for elderly drivers to renew their license from 75 to 70 as part of efforts to address safety issues caused by senior motorists. The new policy was proposed in light of a deadly incident on Monday in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽), in which a 78-year-old motorist surnamed Yu (余) sped through a school zone, killing three people and injuring 12. Last night, another driver sped down a street in Tainan’s Yuching District (玉井), killing one pedestrian and injuring two. The incidents have sparked public discussion over whether seniors
RSS