Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters appeared to be struggling with the party’s position toward Beijing as a considerable percentage of them agreed that a revised and more moderate China policy would likely increase the party’s chances of returning to power, a survey released yesterday showed.
Of the respondents who identified themselves as DPP supporters in a public opinion poll conducted by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research (TISR), 39.5 percent said that it is necessary for the party to formulate a “more moderate” China policy, while 23.3 percent deemed it unnecessary and 8.7 percent preferred a more conservative policy.
If the DPP pledged that it would not change the nation’s name, the national anthem, the national flag or draft a new Constitution, 51.9 percent of DPP supporters said the party’s chances of returning to power would increase, while 29.2 percent said its chances would remain unchanged and 3.9 percent said that its chances would decrease.
If the party announced its acceptance of the Constitution and the so-called “1992 consensus,” 44.9 percent of DPP supporters responded that would increase the party’s chances of winning the next presidential election, while 24.3 percent said its chances would stay the same and 17.1 percent said that the party’s chances would decrease.
The percentage of the DPP supporters who predicted positive results if the party adopted a more moderate China policy or thought the policy should be fine-tuned was higher than that of the general public.
However, the percentage of DPP supporters who said they found the party “more credible” following the policy change was lower than that of the general public, according to TISR.
“It seems to me that DPP supporters are caught in a paradox, as they see the change critical for winning back power, but would find the party less trustworthy if it did,” TISR general manager Tai Li-an (戴立安) said in a press release.
The survey, which ran from Monday to Wednesday, had 1,000 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Taiwan might be China’s next target after it has “walled off” Hong Kong from the rest of the world with its new national security legislation, Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology fellow Wu Jieh-min (吳介民) said on Thursday. At a seminar organized by the Economic Democracy Union, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Hong Kong Outlanders and the Judicial Reform Foundation, Wu said that the legislation is simultaneously a fig leaf concealing Beijing’s autocratic rule in Hong Kong and a figurative “Berlin Wall,” denying democratic countries access to Hong Kong. Wu said it is evident that Taiwan would be China’s next target. The
SAFETY CONCERNS: A construction company working nearby admitted to negligence in the incident, and is to pay a fine and other expenses related to damages Residents of homes adjacent to an alleyway in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和) on Saturday were forced to evacuate their homes after the road collapsed, the New Taipei City government said yesterday. An 80m by 4m area in an alleyway on Wenhua Road (文化路) collapsed at 10:39am near an apartment building construction site where work was being done on the project’s foundation. The incident also ruptured an underground gas pipe and tilted several buildings in the area. Residents would not be able to return to their homes until tomorrow or Wednesday, when repairs are expected to be finished, the city government said. Workers
CHALLENGER DEEP: Lin Ying-Tsong was invited by Caladan Oceanic founder Victor Vescovo to join him on a 10-hour long trip in the company’s submersible Taiwanese-American Lin Ying-Tsong (林穎聰) last month became the first person from Asia and the 12th in human history to dive into the deepest part on Earth, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. Lin, 45, an expert in deep sea acoustics with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, joined US adventurer and Caladan Oceanic founder Victor Vescovo, 54, on June 22 in a descent to the central pool of the Challenger Deep, the deepest point of the trench, which lies at a depth of more than 10,900m. The pair made the descent in a submersible named Limiting Factor, a US$37
ARMS RACE: Two DPP lawmakers said that China’s development model differed from Taiwan’s, as it aims to become a global hegemon, while Taiwan seeks to protect itself Taiwanese national defense experts are split on how Taiwan should respond to the ever-growing budget of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), with some advocating for Taiwan to increase defense spending, while others say that little can be done. The Legislative Yuan approved NT$358 billion (US$12.1 billion) for national defense spending across fiscal 2020, a 3.47 percent increase compared with last year, while China’s military budget this year is NT$5.4 trillion, more than 15 times that of Taiwan. Regardless of whether the government adopts a zero-based budgeting method for national defense spending — in which all expenses are justified and approved each
RSS