President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has recorded the lowest approval rating since his inauguration in 2008, with his Cabinet members also struggling to win approval, a public opinion survey released yesterday showed.
Ma’s latest approval rating of 12.8 percent was the lowest yet in a tracking poll that began when Ma took office in May 2008: 75.2 percent of respondents said they were not satisfied with the president’s performance, according to the Taiwan Indicators Survey Research (TISR) poll.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) had an approval rating of 17.8 percent, up 1.9 percentage points from last month, and a disapproval rating of 57.6 percent.
The survey, which focused on the performances of 15 Cabinet members, found that the respondents were either unfamiliar with the officials or unhappy with their performance, with the percentages of the answer “no impression about this official” ranging from 39.1 percent to 71 percent.
For those who were familiar with specific Cabinet members, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) was the least popular official with a 43.3 percent disapproval rating, followed by Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) at 33.6 percent and Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) at 32.1 percent.
Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Kuan Chung-min (管中閔) ranked fourth with a 28.8 percent disapproval rating, and Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) was the fifth-least popular with a 26.7 percent disapproval rating.
However, respondents’ opinions toward Lee and Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) were split, as Lee also received the highest approval rating of 27 percent among the 15 members, while Lung had an approval rating of 26.7 percent and a disapproval rating of 25.8 percent.
No Cabinet members other than Lee and Lung received approval ratings higher than 12.1 percent.
A further breakdown found that 48.6 percent of those who identified themselves as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supporters approved of Lee’s performance and 46.2 percent supported Lung, according to the TISR.
The poll, conducted on Sunday and Monday, collected 1,006 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3.1 percent.
China appears to have built mockups of a port in northeastern Taiwan and a military vessel docked there, with the aim of using them as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a retired naval officer said yesterday. Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan’s navy, wrote on Facebook that satellite images appeared to show simulated targets in a desert in China’s Xinjiang region that resemble the Suao naval base in Yilan County and a Kidd-class destroyer that usually docks there. Lu said he compared the mockup port to US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, and in Subic Bay
Police are investigating the death of a Formosan black bear discovered on Tuesday buried near an industrial road in Nantou County, with initial evidence indicating that it was shot accidentally by a hunter. The bear had been caught in wildlife traps at least five times before, three times since 2020. Codenamed No. 711, the bear received extensive media coverage last year after it was discovered trapped twice in less than two months in the Taichung mountains. After its most recent ensnarement last month, the bear was released in the Dandashan (丹大山) area in Nantou County’s Sinyi Township (信義). However, officials became concerned after the
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
DETERRENCE: US National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said cross-strait affairs are on the agenda at the US-ASEAN Special Leaders’ Summit The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday thanked the Czech Senate for passing a resolution supporting Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO and other international organizations for the second consecutive year. The resolution was passed on Wednesday with 51 votes in favor, one opposed and 11 abstentions. In addition to the WHO, it also called for Taiwan’s participation in the “meetings, mechanisms and activities” of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Civil Aviation Organization and Interpol. In its opening, the resolution states that the Czech Republic “considers Taiwan as one of its key partners in the Indo-Pacific region,” while noting its
RSS