The majority of Taiwanese are dissatisfied with the performance of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration over the past year, with criticism focusing on its handling of cross-strait ties, food safety and the wealth gap, according to the results of a survey released yesterday by the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) National Policy Foundation think tank.
The dissatisfaction ratings for the Tsai administration’s performance in 15 areas — including Tsai’s pledge to govern with humility, diplomacy, economy, food safety, youth employment and the Cabinet’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Construction Project — all exceeded 40 percent, which is a “rare feat” and “unfortunate” for the nation, foundation chief executive officer Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) told a news conference in Taipei.
According to respondents, Tsai’s worst failing was her handling of food safety, with 71.3 percent of those polled saying they were dissatisfied, while 63.6 percent panned her handling of cross-strait relations, 62.4 percent disliked the Cabinet headed by Premier Lin Chuan (林全), 58.7 percent gave Tsai herself the thumbs down and 56.9 percent said there was a lack of unity within the administration.
Tsai’s priorities, which are pension reform and promoting transitional justice, are at odds with the public’s priorities, which are cross-strait ties, food safety and the wealth gap, Chinese Culture University associate professor Wu Yen-te (吳盈德) said.
Tsai has focused too much energy on transitional justice and pension reform, while neglecting the issues that the public actually cares about, Wu said.
Tsai’s latest iteration of the cross-strait model, that focuses on a “new situation, new survey and new model” did not help Taiwan secure a seat at this year’s World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, he said.
Tsai’s administration has created a divide in society, evidenced by the narrowing of the divide in the number of people those polled who were for and against pension reform, Chinese Culture University professor Yang Tai-shun (楊泰順) said.
This is because Tsai has been reluctant to propose pension cuts for workers in the private sector, focusing all her efforts on downsizing pensions for civil servants, he said.
Tsai is afraid of addressing deficits in the labor pension system because she does not want to incur the wrath of the nation’s 10 million workers, KMT Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗) said.
That reluctance is why after all the efforts the administration has made to keep the nation’s pension systems afloat, it has only managed to push back an anticipated bankruptcy from 2027 to 2029, he said.
A spike in the percentage of people concerned about food safety was caused by recent incidents involving eggs contaminated by dioxin residue, the government’s relaxation of rules governing the use of pesticides and its failure to prevent products made with expired margarine from going on sale, KMT Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said.
He likened Tsai administration’s attempt at pension reform to slogans created by “hipsters,” which might sound profound, but actually have very little content.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
RSS