Nearly half of the respondents to a survey asking people how they felt about President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) performance in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore on Saturday said they were dissatisfied, the Cross-Strait Policy Association survey showed yesterday.
Conducted on Sunday evening, the poll showed 48.5 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with Ma’s achievements at the meeting, while 39.6 percent thought otherwise.
Of those polled, 46.8 percent said Ma failed to safeguard the Republic of China’s (ROC) sovereignty and interests during the meeting, compared with 32.9 percent who thought that the president did a good job.
While respondents were relatively divided over Ma’s overall performance, most agreed on the potential effects the meeting might have on the definition of cross-strait relations, Taiwan’s international space and China’s military threat.
The majority — 59.6 percent — of respondents did not believe Xi would accept the cross-strait stance of “one China, with different interpretations” — which Ma said he raised during his closed-door talks with Xi — while 22 percent were convinced that Xi would welcome the principle.
The survey showed that 56.7 percent of respondents did not think China would agree to Ma’s proposal for Taiwan to have more international space supported by China.
The majority of respondents — 70.9 percent — were not persuaded by Xi’s explanation that the more than 1,000 missiles aimed toward the Taiwan Strait were not targeted at Taiwan, while 19.7 percent trusted the Chinese leader’s remarks.
Most pan-blue and pan-green respondents were not convinced by Xi’s answer, at 90.6 percent and 56.8 percent respectively, the poll showed.
While some political analysts have interpreted the meeting as an attempt to coerce Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) — the frontrunner for the presidency — into following his direction for cross-strait developments, 48.3 percent of those polled did not think that the next president was obligated to abide by the agreements reached during the meeting. While 33.1 percent said it was necessary for the next leader to do so, 18.5 percent declined to express an opinion.
Despite Ma and Xi’s declarations at the meeting that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to “one China,” the vast majority of respondents — 80.9 percent — identified with the perception that “both sides are two different countries” in terms of current and future cross-strait relations.
It was followed by the notion of “promoting cross-strait relations in accordance with the ROC Constitution,” which was backed by 67.4 percent of respondents if multiple answers were allowed. Only 34.2 percent preferred cross-strait ties based on the “1992 consensus” that advocates “one China.”
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed understanding reached during cross-strait talks in 1992 that both Taiwan and China acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what that means.
The meeting also seemed to have little impact on the upcoming presidential election, with Tsai continuing to hold the lead in the polls at 48.6 percent, up 3.4 percentage points from last month.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) garnered 21.4 percent support, down from 21.9 percent last month, while People First Party candidate James Soong’s (宋楚瑜) support rating dropped from 13.8 percent to 8.3 percent.
The poll collected 1,014 valid samples among Taiwanese aged 20 or older, with a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 3.08 percentage points.
Meanwhile, in a separate poll published by the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday, 37.1 percent of respondents were satisfied with Ma’s performance in the Ma-Xi meeting, 33.8 percent were not satisfied and 23 percent had no opinion, it showed.
Additional reporting by CNA
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
RSS