President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) approval rating among young voters has fallen to 18.4 percent and her disapproval rating has risen to 76.4 percent, according to an online poll released yesterday, with respondents saying the president has not understood the priorities of the public.
When asked which policies the government should give priority to, 30.5 percent said long-term care services, followed by childcare services at 12.4 percent, aquatic infrastructure at 11.2 percent, early childhood education at 10 percent, “green” energy infrastructure at 9.5 percent, urban and rural development at 8.6 percent, digital infrastructure at 7.9 percent and rail construction at 7.8 percent, according to Taiwan Democracy Watch, which commissioned the Election Study Center of National Chengchi University to conduct the poll.
According to the survey, 74.4 percent of respondents said the government should establish a “basic pension system” to ensure all retirees receive NT$8,000 per month, while 18.6 percent disagreed with the idea.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The poll found that 64.7 percent of respondents believed Tsai “had lied to” Aborigines and failed in her promise to restore Aboriginal rights, because a newly announced Aboriginal land policy infringes upon their rights to their traditional territories, while 25 percent disagreed with the statement.
According to the survey, 78 percent said a draft act on institutionalizing an oversight mechanism for cross-strait negotiations should be passed immediately to guide bilateral relations, while 14.3 percent disagreed.
Asked if they agreed that the acceptance of the so-called “1992 consensus” would guarantee the safety of Taiwanese in China, 56.6 percent of respondents disagreed and 35.5 percent agreed.
The poll found that 84.3 percent of respondents approved of the idea of the president, as the nation’s highest executive officer, making an annual report to the legislature, while 10.4 percent disapproved.
According to the survey, 67.4 percent of respondents said the government should launch constitutional reform, as it has difficulty formulating and implementing policies due to constitutional restraints, while 23.6 percent said the government should not reform the Constitution.
When asked about their favored method for legislating marriage equality laws, 19.2 percent of respondents said it should be enacted by the Legislative Yuan, 11.6 percent said it should be decided by the Council of Grand Justices and 10.1 percent said it should be put to a referendum.
According to the poll, 95.1 percent of respondents said a cost-benefit analysis should be conducted prior to the legislative review of major infrastructure proposals, apparently in reference to the ongoing legislative review of the NT$882.4 billion (US$29.19 billion) Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.
“Transportation infrastructure was given the lowest priority, but it receives the most funding from the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, while Tsai has hardly any policies regarding public childcare services,” Awakening Foundation researcher Tsen Chao-yuan (曾昭媛) said, criticizing what she said was the government’s “misplaced priorities.”
“We doubt that pension reform would lead to wealth redistribution when the government does not address the issue of a basic pension when cutting the pension benefits of public-sector employees,” Tsen said.
“The online poll shows a collapse of support for Tsai among the ‘Internet demographic.’ The Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] suffered a landslide defeat to Tsai in this voter group in last year’s presidential election,” former DPP legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) said.
That Tsai is losing young voters’ support was confirmed by another online poll conducted by Yahoo and released on May 9, Lin said, attributing Tsai’s unpopularity to her government’s failure to engage the public in key legislation.
The Taiwan Democracy Watch poll was conducted between Monday and Wednesday, with 833 valid samples collected via e-mail. There was no estimated margin of error.
FOUR DESIGNATED AREAS: Notices were issued for live-fire exercises in waters south and northwest of Penghu, northeast of Keelung and west of Kaohsiung, they said The military is planning three major annual exercises across the army, navy and air force this month, with the navy’s “Hai Chiang” (海強, “Sea Strong”) drills running from today through Friday, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The Hai Chiang exercise, which is to take place in waters surrounding Taiwan, would feature P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and S-70C anti-submarine helicopters, the ministry said, adding that the drills aim to bolster the nation’s offshore defensive capabilities. China has intensified military and psychological pressure against Taiwan, repeatedly sending warplanes and vessels into areas near the nation’s air defense identification zone and across
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
SENATE RECOMMENDATION: The National Defense Authorization Act encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s navy to participate in the exercises in Hawaii The US Senate on Thursday last week passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which strongly encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s naval forces to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, as well as allocating military aid of US$1 billion for Taiwan. The bill, which authorizes appropriations for the military activities of the US Department of Defense, military construction and other purposes, passed with 77 votes in support and 20 against. While the NDAA authorizes about US$925 billion of defense spending, the Central News Agency yesterday reported that an aide of US
RSS