Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (
In the poll, conducted on randomly selected adults around the nation on April 21-23 by Focus Survey Research at the commission of the Taiwan Thinktank, 45 percent of the respondents said they approve of Lien meeting with the Beijing leadership during his visit in China, while 42 percent said they disapprove.
Seventy-one percent of respondents said it would be "inappropriate" for Lien to reach a consensus or enter any kind of agreement with Beijing without the authorization of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), according to the think tank.
Sixty-four percent of respondents said they think Lien does not have the authority to represent the people of Taiwan, the think tank reported. Even some 40 percent of supporters of the "pan-blue alliance" of the KMT and the People First Party (PFP) had the same opinion, the pollsters said.
Asked whether Lien and PFP Chairman James Soong (
About 54 percent of respondents said they approve of Soong talking with Beijing about the 10-point consensus that he reached with Chen recently, compared with 30 percent who disapproved.
Meanwhile, the poll found that 50 percent of respondents think that China's communist regime is now more hostile toward Taiwan than a year ago, while only 20 percent think the opposite is true.
A total of 39 percent think that cross-strait relations will turn for the worse this year, while 31 percent think the opposite will occur.
Commenting on the poll findings, Chen Ming-tong (
Hung Yu-hung (洪裕宏), chairman of the private think tank the Taipei Society, said that the results of the poll revealed that the people of Taiwan identify strongly with their country regardless of their political affiliation, and that they have a highly-developed sense of democracy and political reasoning.
The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.99 percentage points.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
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