President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the Cabinet have regained some public approval, the latest poll by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed, with a bump of more than 7 percentage points.
It is the first time that their approval ratings have gone up since the administration took office in May last year.
The poll, released yesterday, found that 41.5 percent of respondents approved of Tsai, up from 33.8 percent last month, while the number of those who disapproved of her fell from 54.4 percent last month to 41.3 percent.
Photo: Wang Yi-song, Taipei Times
“The rebound in Tsai’s approval rating is a surprising turn, and might be caused by an NT$800 billion [US$25.97 billion] infrastructure proposal, the Cabinet reshuffle and the pension reform drive,” foundation chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) told a news conference in Taipei.
The foundation’s polls put Tsai’s approval rating at 69.9 percent when she was inaugurated, but her numbers had been on a steady decline.
The Cabinet’s approval rating was up by 6.4 percentage points to 33.6 percent compared with last month’s poll, while its disapproval rating dropped by 8.6 percentage points to 52 percent.
Asked about the Cabinet reshuffle earlier this month, 36.3 percent of respondents said the scale of the changes was appropriate, 18.7 percent said it was too small and 14.4 percent said it was too large, while 30.3 percent were undecided or indifferent.
However, asked if they could name Cabinet members, few respondents could name names.
Only 21 percent of respondents were able to name Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦), but even so, he had the highest name recognition.
The names of Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三), Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維), Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) and Minister of Labor Lin Mei-chu (林美珠) were recognized by 8.7 percent, 8.5 percent, 8.4 percent and 8.3 percent of respondents respectively. Fewer than 3 percent of respondents knew the names of the rest of the Cabinet.
That lack of recognition could offset the Cabinet’s efforts to communicate government policies to the public, You said.
“Cabinet members have a ridiculously low level of public attention. It has to be [Premier] Lin Chuan’s (林全) top priority to improve [the Cabinet’s image] if he wants to hold another Cabinet ‘workshop,’” You said.
Asked about pension reform efforts, 40.9 percent of respondents thought the government’s plan to phase out the 18 percent preferential savings rate for retired public-sector employees over six years was a suitable amount of time, while 32.4 percent thought it was too slow and 14.3 percent said it was too fast, You said.
Those numbers suggest that a public consensus on the matter has yet to be formed, he said.
However, 38.6 percent of respondents said the proposal to lower the income replacement ratio for retired public employees from 75 percent to 60 percent in 16 years was too slow, 34.9 percent said it was well-paced and 10.4 percent said it was too fast.
The poll found that opinion was nearly evenly split when it came to faith in the ability of Tsai’s government to carry out pension reforms: 47 percent of the respondents said yes and 46.2 percent said no.
Asked about the new labor laws, more than half of respondents, or 54.9 percent, did not support the five-day workweek policy with one regular day off and one flexible “rest day,” while 35.8 percent backed it.
“Opposition to the workweek policy appears unabated, so the policy will remain a trouble spot for Tsai’s administration,” You said.
Almost half of respondents, 49.9 percent, said they were not confident in the government’s ability to carry out judicial reforms, while 40.3 percent of respondents said that they were.
The poll was conducted on Monday and Tuesday last week and collected 1,088 valid samples.
It had a margin of error of 2.97 percentage points.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
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
‘BOOMING’: ’ The number of partners we have here is incredible. You can see from their stock prices. They’re doing so well, they’re so happy,’ Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp’s spending in Taiwan has ballooned to about US$150 billion a year, 10 times the US$10 billion to US$15 billion the company spent five years ago, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, suggesting Taiwan’s strategic importance in the global artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain. “Taiwan is the epicenter of the AI revolution. This is where the chips come, packaging comes. This is where the systems are made. This is where AI supercomputers were created,” Huang said at a meeting for the company’s employees in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei, the planned site of Nvidia’s Taipei headquarters. “Taiwan
GREATER REACH? Auto parts and wood products would face tariffs of up to 15%, matching those targeting the EU, Japan and South Korea, Vice Premier said The US has announced that preferential tariff treatment for Taiwan’s non-semiconductor Section 232 goods would take effect retroactively from May 1, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The US government yesterday posted a notice on the Federal Register’s public inspection Web site previewing tariff concessions for Taiwan under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Taiwan-US investment after two months of negotiations. The MOU signed on Jan. 15 stipulated three major preferential tariff arrangements: a 15 percent “reciprocal” tariff rate for Taiwan without stacking most-favored nation (MFN) rates; preferential Section 232 treatment for semiconductors and related products; and preferential Section 232 treatment for non-semiconductor
RSS