President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) overall approval rating has rallied to 51.6 percent on the back of the passage of pension reform bills, a poll released yesterday by the Taiwan Style Foundation showed.
The poll found that more than 60 percent of respondents were satisfied with Tsai’s pension reform performance, while her approval rating climbed 4.9 percent from a July 3 survey.
However, her disapproval rating was 40.8 percent, and while 41.4 percent of those polled said they were satisfied with her overall performance — an 8 percentage-point increase from the July 3 poll — 54.3 percent said they were dissatisfied.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The approval rating of Premier Lin Chuan (林全) has also risen, from 28.7 percent on July 3 to 34.7 percent, but his disapproval rating remains high at 57.7 percent, the poll showed.
The Act Governing the Retirement and Pensions of Public-School Teachers and Employees (公立學校教職員退休撫卹條例) passed on June 27 reduced the pension benefits of public-sector employees.
Asked if they were satisfied with the reform, 62.8 percent of respondents said they were, while 31.1 percent said they were not.
The reform would have a positive effect on the nation’s development, 68.1 percent of respondents said, but 21.6 percent said it would have a negative effect.
While 61.9 percent of those polled said pension reform was a major achievement for Tsai, 30.6 percent said it was not.
The poll showed bipartisan support for the act across age groups and regions, suggesting the reform has hit its mark, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) said.
“Tsai’s administration has to understand that public support would grow if it does the right thing and explains policies well. However, it would lose both [supporters and opponents of the pension reform] if it makes compromises to curry favor,” Wang said.
Regarding the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, 61.5 percent of respondents said it would benefit the nation, while 27.3 percent said it would not.
While 59.3 percent of respondents supported the government’s introduction of the program, 31.1 percent opposed it.
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) obstruction of Lin’s budget report for the program was approved by 26.8 percent of respondents, but disapproved by 60 percent.
The obstruction of legislative proceedings would negatively impact the KMT according to 50.4 percent of the respondents, while 30.2 percent said it would have a positive effect.
On the question of who should run Taipei, 59.5 percent of respondents said the DPP should field its own candidate instead of again backing independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), while 20.7 percent opposed the idea.
That 72.1 percent of the DPP-inclined respondents wanted the party to pitch its own candidate suggests Ko’s support base is abandoning him, DPP Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said.
The poll was conducted on Sunday and Monday, collected 1,069 valid samples and has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by