More than half of the respondents to a recent opinion poll support the holding of a referendum on Taiwan's future status, the TSU said yesterday.
The TSU legislative caucus conducted a telephone survey of randomly chosen adults from July 15 to July 20 to explore their opinions about referendum legislation and other related topics. A total of 1,095 valid replies were collected, with a margin of error of 3 percent.
According to the poll results, 68 percent of the respondents said they support the enactment of a referendum bill to pave the way for the holding of referendums. As to the title of the proposed legislation, 46.94 percent said it should be dubbed "the referendum law," while 20.64 percent said they would prefer to see it designated as the "initiative and referendum law."
The DPP administration is planning to hold a landmark referendum before or on the day of the next presidential election -- March 20 next year -- to decide whether construction of a controversial half-completed nuclear power plant should be scrapped or continued.
The TSU poll found that 57.16 percent of the respondents gave a thumbs-up to the proposal that a referendum be held to decide whether Taiwan should declare independence or unify with China, while 34.24 percent said they oppose such a proposal.
If a referendum on changing the nation's official designation from the Republic of China to Taiwan were to be held, 46.21 percent said they would support the proposal, but a roughly equal 44.1 percent gave a thumbs-down to the idea.
Asked if the Legislative Yuan should fail to complete referendum legislation during its next session scheduled to open in September, 57.35 percent said they would back a Cabinet plan to formulate a provisional package of regulations to lay a framework for holding a "consultative referendum" to deliver on President Chen Shui-bian's (
Seventy-three percent said they support the holding of referendums on major public construction projects, but 18 percent said they are opposed to holding such referendums.
Meanwhile, 57.45 percent endorsed a proposal to hold a consultative referendum on Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Organization on the day of the next presidential election even if the legislature fails to pass a referendum bill, while 32.23 gave a negative reply.
Analyzing the poll results, TSU Deputy Secretary-General Chen Hung-chi (
"Since referendum is a basic civil right prescribed in our Constitution, the legislature should not continue stonewalling the passage of a referendum bill," Chen said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS