Public confidence in Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her party reached new highs this month while President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trust level continued to drop, the latest poll released by the Chinese-language Global Views Monthly magazine showed.
The poll, conducted by the Global Views Survey Research Center, put Tsai’s confidence index at 52.3 points on a scale of 0 to 100. The figure represented an increase of 1.1 points from last month and was the highest since May.
Ma’s confidence index, meanwhile, dropped 0.3 points from last month to 47.2 this month. It reached 50.1 in October, the highest since August last year. Meanwhile, the trust level for Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) rose 0.4 points to 45.9.
Overall, public confidence in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was 45.5 this month, up 1.8 points.
Confidence in the DPP increased 2.3 points to 44, an all-time high since the center began the survey in July 2006.
Center director Lian Tai (戴立安) attributed the growing confidence in Tsai and her party to a positive public impression of the DPP, which won Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung in last month’s five special municipality elections. The party also won the popular vote by 5 percentage points, or about 400,000 votes, despite only winning two of the five mayoral seats up for grabs.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan Public Mood Index (TPMI) this month edged up 3.2 points to 46.4. Although it remained below 50, it was the highest since the survey was launched in July 2006.
TPMI consists of two indexes: the political confidence index (PCI) and the economic confidence index (ECI).
The PCI was 50.9 this month — up 3.4 points. It was the first time the figure has been above the 50-mark since September last year. The ECI this month was 41.9 — the second highest since the survey was established. The ECI reached the highest in October, with 42.5 points.
Tai said although the figures reflected growing confidence in the economy, public confidence in Ma had yet to recover, he said.
On the political front, the poll showed the index for political optimism increased 7.4 points to 57.9. The political stability index for next month was 53.4 — an increase of 9.2 points — and the level of trust in cross-strait detente for next month grew 5.7 points to 62.4.
On the economic front, the current economic situation index was 34.6 points, a rise of 2.1 points from last month. The economic optimism index advanced 3.9 to 49.2 points.
The poll surveyed 1,008 adults nationwide from Dec. 13 to Dec. 15, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS