The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday attributed President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) approval rating dips to what it said were her administration’s disregard of the public and thirst for greater political gains.
Speaking at a news conference at the KMT headquarters yesterday morning, KMT Culture and Communications Committee Deputy Director-General Tang Te-ming (唐德明) said the Tsai administration is like a dish of seemingly delicious vegetables that has gradually gone bad due to the presence of “corrupting bacteria.”
Tang said the government does not seem to have the public interest in mind and appears fixated on obtaining greater political gains and taking down the KMT.
“The DPP attaches little importance to national interests and fawns over Japan and the US at the expense of the nation’s sovereignty and fishing rights,” Tang said.
Tang said that the Tsai administration practices nepotism, citing as an example allegations that state-owned China Airlines’ (CAL) personnel reshuffle was based on a list of candidates provided by DPP headquarters.
The news conference came one day after Taiwan Indicators Survey Research published an opinion poll that showed Tsai’s approval ratings dropped below 50 percent for the first time since she was sworn in on May 20.
The percentage of people who expressed dissatisfaction over Tsai’s performance surged from 16.3 percent in May to nearly 40 percent in the research center’s latest survey.
In addition, the poll showed that Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) disapproval rating surpassed his approval rating for the first time, at 40.4 percent and 37.3 percent respectively. Lin’s disapproval rating in the May survey was 17.4 percent.
KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hu Wen-chi (胡文琦) accused Tsai of being an opportunistic leader who has sought to please everyone and solved no real problems.
“From the comfort women issue, the problem of the government being entangled with the ruling party and the suspension of cross-strait communications to the nation’s sovereignty claims over Taiping Island [Itu Aba Island, 太平島], the stalled Taiwan-Japan fisheries negotiation and people’s unsatisfactory level of livelihood, Tsai has addressed none of these issues,” Hu said.
Hu said that Tsai’s failure to fix problems is precisely why voters are starting to count down her days in office when it is only three months into her four-year presidential term.
Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷), another committee deputy director-general, said that the Tsai administration has a tendency to flip-flop on major social issues and to bow to pressure.
“For instance, Tsai backed down on her nominations of Judicial Yuan president and vice president amid mounting public criticism... This shows that only those in charge know how difficult it is to be in charge,” Hung said.
On Saturday, Tsai approved Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission Chief Commissioner Hsieh Wen-ting’s (謝文定) and Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Lin Chin-fang’s (林錦芳) withdrawal of their nominations as Judicial Yuan president and vice president respectively.
Without completed infrastructure and training, the expedited sale of new F-16s from the US could become a burden rather than a help, a military official said yesterday. Reuters on Thursday last week reported that Washington is looking to accelerate the delivery of 66 new F-16C/D Block 70 aircraft in response to what it sees as increasing intimidation by Beijing. Under the terms of the original US$8 billion deal signed in 2019, the US is expected to deliver a single-seater and double-seater for testing next year, then deliver the 66 new aircraft in batches of four or five from 2024 to 2026. The officials
SLIGHTS: Beijing intends to display pro-unification messages and prominently feature Taiwanese volunteers in its propaganda videos, an official said Taiwanese officials are poised to boycott next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics, an official with knowledge of the matter said yesterday, citing concerns that China would slight Taiwan during the Games. This year’s Winter Olympics are scheduled to open on Friday next week amid a diplomatic boycott by Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, New Zealand, the UK and the US in response to China’s human rights abuses against Uighurs in Xinjiang and crackdowns on democracy advocates in Hong Kong. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that a Cabinet-appointed task force has determined that Taiwan’s delegation would abstain from the opening and
‘CHINESE STYLE’: Taipei residents do not want smart city efforts based on ‘centralized control, tracking and mass surveillance,’ the campaign’s initiators said Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) yesterday said that her campaign against the Taipeipass (台北通) app has garnered almost 10,000 signatures since Friday, but exposed her to insults and threats by telephone and through social media. It seems to be a “coordinated attack,” as all the messages follow a similar pattern, she said, citing as an example one saying: “We love the Taipeipass. Do not block the smart city plan. Stop interfering with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).” Some people had left disparaging remarks and false information when signing up for the online petition, and there have been attempts to disrupt her
INCREASED COOPERATION: Part of the funding is to be used to further the aims of a Taiwan-US human resources development platform launched in 2015, a source said An increase of ￥100 million (US$878,765) to Japan’s annual foreign affairs budget is for “advancing the Japan-Taiwan relationship,” information published on the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Web site showed. The ministry’s budget for last year was ￥1.7 billion; it was increased to ￥1.8 billion for this year. The ministry wrote that the additional funding was to be used for “cooperating with allies and like-minded countries to safeguard the universal values of the international community.” Regarding Taiwan specifically, the ministry said that it was “responding to an increasingly complex security and economic environment,” and that it aimed to “strengthen diplomacy and cooperation
RSS