The latest poll from the Taiwan Indicator Survey Research (TISR) suggested that support for ceasing the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), increased by 4 percentage points from a previous poll conducted in March.
TISR general manager Tai Li-an (戴立安) said that the percentage of people opposed to completing the nuclear plant increased from 58 percent in March to 62 percent last month.
The government’s efforts to persuade the public that the plant is safe are not only ineffective, they are actually causing more people to be worried, Tai said.
On the issue of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s and Taiwan Power Co’s joint efforts to persuade the public of the overall safety of nuclear power, the latest poll showed that 73.6 percent of respondents were not swayed by the government’s arguments.
Only 9.1 percent indicated that they have changed their minds, 4 percent of whom said that they had gone from questioning to flat-out opposition. Only 1.9 percent said they were persuaded by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, the survey showed.
The poll also showed that Ma’s low public approval ratings have not rebounded, with only 19 percent of respondents satisfied with his administration and 73.4 percent dissatisfied.
Meanwhile, only 24.9 percent said they have faith in the government, while 60.2 percent have no confidence in the government.
The survey was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday through random telephone samplings of 1,005 residents who were older than 20 spread across the nation, Tai said.
The poll has a 95 percent confidence interval and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
921 EARTHQUAKE: The magnitude 7.3 quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged The Central Weather Bureau yesterday received about 50,000 views on Facebook after it posted the data that it collected on Sept. 21, 1999, when the nation was devastated by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. The data showed that the 921 Earthquake hit the nation at 1:47am, with the epicenter being 7km southwest of the bureau’s quake detection center in Nantou County’s Yuchi Township (魚池) at a depth of 8km. The quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged, with the cost of the damage estimated at NT$300 billion (US$10.8 billion at the current
British newspaper The Mail on Sunday reported that Prince Charles met with Bruno Wang (汪家興), a Taiwanese fugitive who describes himself as a Chinese philanthropist and donated ￡500,000 (US$683,522) to the prince’s charity, the Prince’s Foundation. The newspaper reported that Wang is wanted in Taiwan on charges related to money laundering and being a fugitive from justice, allegations he denies, and drew comparisons between Wang and the Russian banker Dmitry Leus. Investigation and cooperation with foreign authorities have found that Bruno Wang’s father, Andrew Wang (汪傳浦), had stashed proceeds from a scandal involving the procurement of Lafayette frigates in 61 bank accounts,
AT ODDS: The KMT called on the government to seek bilateral dialogue with Beijing to resolve the issue that led to the ban on custard apple and wax apple imports Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials and lawmakers yesterday condemned China’s sudden ban on imports of custard apples and wax apples from Taiwan as “obvious political retaliation,” while the opposition called for a scientific investigation into Beijing’s claim to have found pests in imports of the fruits. China earlier yesterday announced a ban on the importation of the two fruits from today, citing repeated discoveries of Planococcus minor, a type of mealybug. The announcement follows a similar ban on Taiwanese pineapples imposed in February. At least Beijing gave a few days’ notice when it banned pineapple imports, an unnamed government official said yesterday. This time
BY OTHER MEANS: China could see CPTPP membership as a means of circumventing trade restrictions imposed by the US, amid an ongoing trade dispute between them The US could invoke a clause in its trade agreement with Canada and Mexico to block China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a government official said yesterday. Under Article 32.10 of the Exceptions and General Provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), if either Canada or Mexico enter a free-trade agreement with a nonmarket economy — such as China — the US could withdraw from the agreement. “If that clause applies to multilateral free-trade agreements such as the CPTPP — which Mexico and Canada are members of — that might be cause for the two
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