More than 70 percent of Taiwanese believe the government should develop initiatives for rewarding talent and enhancing local industries as a response to China’s 31 incentives for Taiwanese, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday.
A survey conducted by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center showed that 88.9 percent of respondents thought the government should communicate with the public about its approach before conducting any cross-strait exchanges that might affect the public’s rights, and 69.9 percent believed the government should improve regulations on cross-strait exchanges to safeguard the nation.
In addition, 80.9 percent of respondents believed to maintain a better long-term relationship, cross-strait talks should not be based on any prerequisites, the council said.
It said that 82.2 percent of respondents support holding cross-strait exchange events that exclude political factors, allow both sides to maintain their dignity and are in line with regulations.
The poll showed that 84.4 percent of respondents believed that Taiwan and China should maintain a positive relationship and refrain from using threats or non-peaceful means, the council said.
Furthermore, 66.9 percent said that Chinese attempts to prevent Taiwan from participating in international events were not constructive to developing a positive cross-strait relationship, it added.
The poll showed that 85.6 percent agreed that the future of Taiwan and cross-strait relations must be collectively decided by the 23 million Taiwanese, it said.
However, it also showed that the majority of Taiwanese — 84.8 percent — support “maintaining the ‘status quo,’” it said.
The government will do its best to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait and protect the public’s rights, the council said.
Maintaining a good relationship requires work on both sides, it said, adding that while Taiwan would continue to seek ways to collaborate with China, the latter should also refrain from using threats and intimidation.
The survey was conducted on March 28, March 31 and April 2. It interviewed 1,105 Taiwanese aged 20 and above by telephone. It has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.95 percentage points.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching