More than half of the people surveyed in a recent poll believe China is trying to sway the presidential election, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) official said yesterday.
Tsai Huang-lan (
The poll, conducted Feb. 12 and Feb. 13 by Focus Survey Research, collected 1,042 effective samples and had a margin of error of 3.04 percent.
The survey found that 51.4 percent of those polled said that Beijing is trying to sway the election, compared with 21.1 percent who disagreed.
Tsai said that if foreign forces intervene in the election, it will affect the nation's competition edge.
The poll found that 57.8 percent of respondents believe that tycoons who invest in China but leave huge debts in Taiwan will have a "very serious" impact on the nation's economy and 18.6 percent said they will have a "serious" impact.
As for who will be more capable of improving the situation, 27.4 percent named President Chen Shui-bian (
"This shows that President Chen is more capable of solving the problem," Tsai said.
The survey also found that 20.2 percent of the respondents believe that former Tuntex chairman Chen You-hau (
Meanwhile, The China Times said yesterday that Lien leads Chen by three percentage points in polls, but the election is still too close to call.
According to the newspaper's survey, Lien would win 43 percent of votes against 40 percent for Chen if the election was held now.
About 17 percent of those polled were still undecided.
The poll canvassed 2,535 eligible voters between last Monday and Thursday and the newspaper allowed for a two percentage point margin of error.
Although Lien has maintained a roughly three percentage point lead over Chen in recent surveys, this was the first time support for the president had risen to above 40 percent, the paper said.
Chen has said he wis confident he will win by between 300,000 and 500,000 votes, or roughly 3 percent to 5 percent of the vote. He has predicted the outcome would be similar to the 2000 election.
The China Times poll found 47 percent of voters -- most of them Chen supporters -- said they would take part in the referendum, while 36 percent said they would boycott it.
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today released images of the military tracking China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) movements during the latest round of Chinese drills around Taiwan. The PLA began "Justice Mission 2025" drills today, carrying out live-fire drills, simulated strikes on land and maritime targets, and exercises to blockade the nation's main ports. The exercises are to continue tomorrow, with the PLA announcing sea and air space restrictions for five zones around Taiwan for 10 hours starting from 8:30am. The ministry today released images showing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet tracked by a F-16V Block 20 jet and the
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