The Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation and the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association yesterday released separate polls on Taiwanese satisfaction with President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) governance over the past six years.
About 63.9 percent of respondents said that coexisting with COVID-19 is a suitable policy for Taiwan, 11.5 percent preferred the “zero COVID” model adopted by the Shanghai City Government and 24.6 percent declined to provide an answer, the association’s poll showed.
The poll also showed that 48.3 percent of respondents were confident that Tsai is handling cross-strait relations appropriately, while 36.1 percent said that they lacked confidence in her approach.
Photo courtesy of the Taoyuan City Government
Overall, the poll showed that 49.2 percent of respondents were satisfied with the governance of the Tsai administration, while 29.1 percent expressed dissatisfaction.
The association’s poll was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, interviewing 1,073 adults in telephone interviews after calling randomized landline numbers.
It has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.98 percentage points.
The association’s poll was weighted based on gender, age and region.
Taiwan Thinktank member Tung Li-wen (董立文) said that she was impressed by the Tsai administration’s ability to maintain high satisfaction ratings, even amid unprecedented political, economic and military turmoil.
The foundation’s poll separately showed that 26.8 percent of respondents were “extremely satisfied” with the performance of Tsai’s administration, 16.5 were “satisfied,” 23.1 percent were “ambivalent,” 13.1 percent were “moderately dissatisfied” and 16.2 percent were “extremely dissatisfied.”
In descending order, 56.7 percent were satisfied with the performance of the administration’s foreign relations, 51.1 percent were satisfied with national defense, 49.5 percent were satisfied with cross-strait policies, 47.3 percent were satisfied with economic performance, 42.4 percent were satisfied that Taiwan had developed its own COVID-19 vaccine and 37.3 percent were satisfied with the administration’s judiciary reforms, the foundation’s poll showed.
Measuring dissatisfaction, 48.5 percent cited Taiwan’s vaccine development, 44.8 percent said economic performance, 43.9 percent said judicial reforms, 39.2 percent said cross-strait policies, 35 percent said national defense policies and 33.9 percent said foreign relations, it showed.
The foundation said that 46 percent supported Tsai’s handling of national affairs, while 40 percent were unhappy in that regard.
The narrow difference of 6.7 percentage points between the national affairs numbers should be a warning for the administration, the foundation said.
The foundation’s poll was conducted on Monday and Tuesday, interviewing people aged 20 or older via telephone.
It obtained 1,077 valid responses and has a 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to