A record-high 76.6 percent of the Taiwanese public sees China as unfriendly to the Taiwanese government, as well as Taiwanese (61.5 percent), the highest levels in 15 years, a Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) survey released on Thursday showed.
Taiwan attended the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s decisionmaking body, as an observer from 2009 to 2016, but has since been denied entry due to pressure from Beijing.
About 90 percent of respondents said that they were against China keeping Taiwan from joining the WHO amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as that directly affects the Taiwanese public’s right to health.
More than 70 percent felt that the government should exhort Beijing to end its political machinations against Taiwan at the WHO, the survey found.
On the issue of evacuating Taiwanese stranded in China’s Hubei Province, about 73 percent supported the government prioritizing disadvantaged people and disease prevention measures, it showed.
Since last year, the percentage of the Taiwanese public opposed to China’s “one country, two systems” framework has increased from 75.4 percent to 90 percent, the survey found.
Beijing’s continued suppression of Taiwan on the international stage has only led to heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait, MAC Deputy Minister Chen Ming-chi (陳明祺) said.
Chen called on the Chinese Communist Party to recognize that its political claims are not realistic and to rationally weigh public opinion in Taiwan when developing its cross-strait policies.
The council commissioned the National Chengchi University Election Study Center for the poll, which was conducted via telephone interviews from Thursday last week to Monday. It collected 1,089 valid samples and has a margin of error of 2.97 percentage points.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
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