Voters’ confidence in Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) surpassed that of her Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterpart, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), for the first time since the two took charge of their respective parties, a poll released yesterday by the Chinese-language Global Views magazine (遠見) showed.
Public trust in the DPP also surged to a new three-year high, the survey showed.
The poll, conducted by the Global Views Survey Research Center, put Tsai’s trust index at 46.2 on a scale of 0 to 100, up 0.1 points from last month, while Ma’s dropped 2.6 points from last month to 43.9 this month.
Tsai’s trust index has risen to its highest level since she took over as DPP chairwoman in May last year. Ma became the KMT chairman last month.
DPP GAINS ON KMT
The level of trust in the DPP stood at 39.4 points, just below its record high of 39.5 set in August. The center began conducting the polls in June 2006.
The KMT’s trust index was 41.5 this month, a drop of 0.6 points from last month and just 2.1 higher than that of the DPP.
Center director Lian Tai (戴立安) said the improvement in Tsai and her party’s trust indexes had a lot to do with the diminishing impact of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) corruption trial and increasing public expectations for the country’s largest opposition party.
Tai said it remained to be seen whether the drop in the KMT and Ma’s trust indexes would be reflected in next Saturday’s local elections.
While Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) had enjoyed more public trust than Ma over the past two months, Wu’s trust index plummeted 7.7 points from last month to 43.7 this month.
Tai said that while this was not the sharpest drop in the confidence ratings this month, it was the main reason for the drop in the KMT’s overall trust index.
Tai attributed Wu’s decline in confidence to the negative impact of reports of the premier’s association with a former convict, adding that it had also dealt a blow to the public’s trust in Ma.
MOOD INDEX
The public mood index this month remained below 50 at a low of 40.7 points, a 1.8 point drop from last month.
The public mood index consists of two indicators: the political confidence index (PCI) and the economic confidence index (ECI). The PCI fell 2.9 points from last month to 45.5 this month, while the ECI was 0.6 points lower this month at 35.9.
The political optimism index for next month dropped 1.8 points to 49.3, while the level of trust that the cross-strait detente will be maintained next month fell 0.8 points to 60.4, the lowest point since December last year.
Tai said the plunge might have something to do with public doubts about an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) the Ma administration seeks to sign with Beijing.
The index for political stability next month also dived to 38.2 points from 41 last month, which Tai attributed to the DPP’s displeasure with the government’s decision to relax restrictions on US beef, the way the administration handled a financial memorandum of understanding with China as well as the tension caused by the local elections.
On the economic front, the current economic situation index was 26.8 points, a decrease of 0.6 points from last month.
The economic optimism index fell 0.6 points to 45 points. Next month’s index for the improvement of the domestic economy fell by 0.3 points to 46.4, and that for the improvement for personal finances was down 0.9 points to 43.5.
The poll was conducted from Nov. 15 to Nov. 17 and 1,004 adults countrywide were surveyed.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats