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.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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