Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) campaign office yesterday said “serving beef” to voters remained its top priority and that it still aimed to take the top spot in the campaign, despite the party’s latest poll placing Hung at the bottom.
“Opinion polls are for reference only and putting forward new, appealing policies will continue to be our primary objective,” Hung’s campaign office spokesperson Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said.
Only one person could be elected president on Jan. 16 next year, and Hung’s campaign team has their hearts set on taking the top prize, Hsu said.
Photo: Cheng Hung-ta, Taipei Times
Hsu made the remarks one day after KMT headquarters released an internal survey on the three primary presidential candidates, which showed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) continuing to lead Hung and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
Hung received the support of 18 percent of respondents, while Soong received 19 percent, a narrowing of the gap between them ,which previous polls had put at about 5 percent.
Compared with an earlier opinion poll released by the Cross-Strait Policy Association on Aug. 10, both Tsai’s and Soong’s support ratings have dropped, from 42.9 percent and 23.3 percent respectively.
Voter support for Hung experienced a slight increase, from 16.8 percent to 18 percent.
The Wednesday poll results have been interpreted among the higher echelons of the KMT as an indicator of the end to what they called a temporary surge in the momentum of Soong’s campaign, which he received due to the initial excitement generated by his bid.
According to a report published by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) on Wednesday, some KMT heavyweights believe that if Hung’s support level can climb to 30 percent, the party still stands a chance of marginalizing Soong and catching up with Tsai.
The report also quoted a KMT member who spoke on condition of anonymity as saying that the KMT would continue its “cold tactics” toward Soong and concentrate its firepower solely on Tsai.
Dismissing jibes that the internal poll served as an “official recognition” of Hung as the weakest presidential contender in next year’s race, KMT spokesman Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) said that while Hung was in last place in the poll, her support rate has bounced back from the 13 percent garnered in a previous survey.
“Talk of an official recognition does not matter. At least we are honest with ourselves in the campaign,” Yang said.
Asked to comment on Hung’s mildly improved support rating, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said continued endeavor was still needed as the campaign was at in rather early stages.
“Effort and cooperation are what matter the most in election campaigns,” Chu said.
PFP Deputy Secretary-General Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) shrugged off the KMT’s results, saying that the party is “expert” at conducting opinion polls.
“I guess congratulations are in order for the KMT, but shouldn’t they have put Hung in first place?” Liu said, insinuating the possibility of poll manipulation.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS