The approval ratings for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Lin Chuan (林全) have fallen to 40.8 percent and 31.7 percent respectively, their lowest since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration took office in May, according to a Taiwan Indicators Survey Research poll.
Of those polled, 40.8 percent said they are satisfied with Tsai’s performance, down 2 percentage points from a survey conducted by the firm last month, while 41.8 percent said they are dissatisfied, a decline of 3.2 percentage points from last month, according to the foundation’s Taiwan Mood Barometer Survey released yesterday.
On the question of trust, 48 percent said that they trust Tsai, down 5.4 percentage points from last month’s poll, while 33.1 percent said that they do not trust her, a rise of 0.2 percentage points from last month.
Tsai’s approval ratings and trust ratings were at their highest in late June, at 54.6 percent and 59.8 percent respectively, but they have since fallen consistently, according to the foundation’s polls.
Asked about the premier, 31.7 percent said they are satisfied with his performance, compared with 47.2 percent who are dissatisfied.
Lin’s disapproval rating first surpassed his approval rating in a poll conducted early last month, and the gap between positive and negative ratings has continued to widen since then, according to the foundation.
In terms of party preferences, 43.4 percent of respondents said that they have a positive view of the DPP, while 35.3 percent said they have a negative impression of the party, down 2.5 percentage points and 1.5 percentage points from last month respectively.
As for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), 26.1 percent said they have a favorable view of the party, while 48.8 percent said they dislike it, a decline of 0.4 percentage points and 4.8 percentage points from last month respectively.
Of those polled, 16.4 percent said they have a positive impression of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a rise of 0.6 percentage points from last month, while 57.7 percent said they hold a negative view of the party, a decline of 3.8 percentage points.
“Respondents have a neutral attitude toward the DPP, but they generally have a negative impression of the KMT and the CCP, although the preference ratings of the two parties have increased slightly,” the foundation said.
Meanwhile, 9.9 percent of respondents said they think the nation’s economy is in good shape, while 77.7 percent said it is not.
Of those polled, 54.5 percent said they have a sustainable household income, and 38 percent said they do not.
The telephone survey was conducted on Sunday and Monday and interviewed 1,017 people, with a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,