President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) approval rating dropped 4.2 percentage points from last month to 31.7 percent, her second-lowest in a Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation poll so far, indicating that her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration has lost a large number of supporters, the foundation said yesterday.
The poll found that approval for Tsai was only slightly higher than her rating of 29.8 percent in August last year, while her disapproval rating rose by 0.1 percentage points from last month to 46.7 percent.
Disapproval of Tsai exceeded 50 percent among respondents aged between 25 and 54, and her approval rating was less than 30 percent among that group, foundation chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“It signals a dangerous implication when young and middle-aged groups become Tsai’s main opponents,” You said.
However, 47.1 percent of respondents approved of Premier William Lai’s (賴清德) performance, while 36.3 percent were dissatisfied.
The foundation said 59.9 percent of respondents were not satisfied with Tsai’s economic performance and only 30.6 were satisfied, a new low for her in the foundation’s polls.
Although most economic indicators have shown signs of progress since last year, 41.5 percent of the respondents still believed that the economy took a downturn last year, 13.1 percent said it was picking up and 39.6 percent said there was not much difference from previous years, You said.
While 30.6 percent of respondents said they expected the economy to slow this year, 24.4 percent said they expected it to improve and 33.1 percent said it would not change.
Asked about their personal financial situation last year, 62.2 percent of respondents said it had not changed, 13 percent said it had improved and 23 percent said they were worse off.
As for other issues, while 39.8 percent of respondents supported the Civil Aeronautics Administration’s decision to hold off approving applications for additional Lunar New Year holiday flights by China Eastern Airlines Corp (中國東方航空) and by XiamenAir (廈門航空) to counter Beijing’s unilateral activation of the northbound M503 flight route, 43.8 percent opposed the decision.
Asked about Tsai’s handling of cross-strait relations, 59.6 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied, while 30.8 percent were satisfied.
The president’s approach to Beijing was too hardline according to 23.3 percent of the respondents, while 30.3 percent said it was appropriate and 29.8 percent said it was too weak.
The survey results show that the public is disappointed with the economy, and the DPP should outline a broader vision of economic development and cross-strait relations, former DPP legislator Chien Hsi-chieh (簡錫堦) said.
Of the respondents, 28 percent said they identified with the DPP and 24 percent with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), while 43.4 percent said they were neutral.
The percentage of people identifying with the DPP was as high as 51.9 percent in June 2016, but the latest poll showed it had fallen to its second-lowest point since Tsai took office.
The survey was conducted between Sunday and Tuesday last week. A total of 1,074 valid samples were collected and the poll has a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
RSS