Support for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presumptive presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) dropped by 8.3 percentage points in two weeks to 19.5 percent in a head-to-head matchup with Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who received 54 percent support, a poll released yesterday showed.
It was the first time that Hung’s support rating fell below 20 percent, Taiwan Indicators Survey Research general manager Tai Li-an (戴立安) said, citing Hung’s support rating of 31 percent early last month and 27.8 percent late last month.
If People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) enters the race, 41.2 percent of respondents said they would vote for Tsai, against Soong’s 22.8 percent and Hung’s 15.5 percent, the poll showed.
The survey was conducted on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Compared with a poll from two weeks ago, in a three-way race, Hung saw a loss of 10 percent of voters who identified themselves as KMT supporters.
Support for Tsai against Hung increased from 41 percent in the poll early last month to 47.7 percent two weeks ago, Tai said.
If Soong were to replace Hung to represent the pan-blue camp, Tsai led Soong by 47.6 percent to 26.4 percent, compared with 41.9 percent to 32.6 percent two weeks ago.
After they were read statements from Hung and Tsai, respondents were asked whether the presidential hopefuls would be able to maintain the cross-strait “status quo” or seek to change it.
The poll found 37.8 percent of respondents said that Hung’s “one China, same interpretation” proposal, under which she defines the cross-strait relationship as two constitutional governments in a whole China, and her goal to sign a peace treaty with China intend to alter the “status quo,” 34.1 percent said the policy would maintain the “status quo” and 28.1 percent did not answer the question.
Asked about Tsai’s proposal to handle cross-strait relations in accordance with the constitutional order and mainstream public opinion, 54.3 percent said Tsai’s objective was to maintain the “status quo,” 19.6 percent said she would change it and 26.1 percent did not answer the question.
Separately, commentators yesterday said that Hung’s solid base of support stood somewhere between 20 percent and 30 percent, although she won the KMT’s primary with 46 percent approval in surveys commissioned by the party on June 12 and June 13.
Several polls conducted by various polling agencies after the KMT primary found that Hung’s support rating ranged from 20 percent to 30 percent, meaning that her core supporters account for 20 to 30 percent of the electorate, Cross-Strait Policy Association secretary-general Anson Hung (洪耀南) said.
Hung’s support rating “plunged in free fall” because her “one China, same interpretation” policy was tantamount to her opposition to the maintenance of cross-strait “status quo” and strident pace toward “unification,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
Hung has temporarily held off advocating the “one China, same interpretation” proposal, but “she has not taken it off the shelf,” Chen said.
The proposal could have further repercussions on the KMT’s performance in the legislative election to be held simultaneously with the presidential election in January next year, Chen added.
A poll by the Cross-Strait Policy Association on July 1 and July 2 found Tsai led Hung by 50.4 percent to 26.9 percent, it said.
In a three-way race, Tsai won with 39.6 percent support against Soong’s 21.4 percent and Hung’s 19.4 percent.
On Tuesday last week, TVBS released a latest poll that showed Hung’s 26 percent support trailed Tsai’s 36 percent, with Soong achieving 21 percent and democracy activist Shih Ming-te (施明德) 1 percent.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A US aircraft carrier group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt has entered the South China Sea to promote “freedom of the seas,” the US military said yesterday, as tensions between China and Taiwan raise concerns in Washington. US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the strike group entered the South China Sea on Saturday, the same day Taiwan reported a large incursion of Chinese bombers and fighter jets into its air defense identification zone near the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). The US military said the carrier strike group was in the South China Sea, a large part of which
STRATEGIC MISTAKE: Beijing’s deployment of aircraft near Taiwan proves the ‘China threat theory’ that sees it attempting to destabilize the region, an analyst said China on Saturday and yesterday sent a record number of military aircraft into the nation’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in what analysts said was an attempt to flex its military might for US President Joe Biden. Thirteen Chinese warplanes flew into Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ on Saturday and 15 entered yesterday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. On Saturday, eight Xian H-6K bombers, four Shenyang J-16 fighters and a Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, entered the ADIZ, while yesterday there were two Y-8s, two Su-30s, four J-16s, six J-10 fighters and a Y-8 reconnaissance
DISPOSING MYTHS: A new constitution would better reflect reality, as the current one was drafted ‘in and for China,’ without the consent of Taiwanese, advocates said Independence advocates yesterday launched the Taiwan New Constitution Alliance to promote drafting a new, localized constitution. “This is a historic moment for Taiwan. Drafting a new constitution is the most important task Taiwanese face,” veteran independence advocate Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) said at the inaugural event in Taipei. “Although the Democratic Progressive Party is in power, its authority is based on the Republic of China [ROC] Constitution, which has no connection to Taiwan,” said the 95-year-old Koo, a former presidential adviser. “The historic task of drafting a new constitution depends on efforts by all Taiwanese,” Koo said. “A constitution for a sovereign, independent Taiwan
RSS