Premier William Lai’s (賴清德) high approval rating of nearly 70 percent is believed to have helped boost President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) rating toward 50 percent, while more than half of Taiwanese support a proposal to amend the Constitution, a poll released yesterday by the Taiwan Style Foundation showed.
Lai, who assumed the post on Sept. 8, has garnered the approval of 68.8 percent of respondents, while 23 percent expressed dissatisfaction.
Regarding Lai’s ability to revive the economy, 63.5 percent said they are confident, compared with 30.2 percent who said they were not, while 65.2 percent think his executive ability is good, compared with 21 percent who do not agree.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The premier is heeding public opinion, according to 60.2 percent of respondents, while 30.3 percent said he is not.
Tsai’s approval rating stands at 49.7 percent, while her disapproval rating is at 45.1 percent. Just over half of respondents at 54.8 percent said they support Tsai, while 40.4 percent said they do not.
Tsai’s satisfaction rating had fallen to a record low of 18.4 percent in a poll released in May by Taiwan Democracy Watch ahead of the first anniversary of her presidency.
“In terms of polling performance, the [administration] has weathered an unstable period after Lai’s inauguration,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) said.
The poll suggests that controversies surrounding the administration’s reform policies have ended, while efficiently implementing the policies is to be the next challenge, foundation board director Wang Zhin-sheng (王智盛) said.
When asked about a proposal by Tsai and the DPP to amend the Constitution, 56 percent of respondents said they approve, while 22.1 percent disapproved.
Half of the respondents opposed lowering the minimum voting age from 20 to 18, while 46.8 percent approved of the potential constitutional amendment.
Human rights protection should be codified into the Constitution, 69.8 percent of the respondents said, but 17.3 percent said it is not necessary.
Seventy-two percent believe that legislative elections should be revised to prevent unequal representation, while 17.8 percent said the revision is not necessary.
While 80.9 percent of respondents are in favor of a proposal put forth by Tsai in her Double Ten National Day address to hold a political party leaders’ meeting, 13.6 percent disapproved.
Regarding cross-strait policy, two-thirds of respondents said they support Tsai’s statement that the nation would continue to show goodwill and stay true to its promises without returning to a confrontational relationship or succumbing to Beijing’s pressure, while 24.9 percent said they disapproved.
The poll conducted on Thursday and Friday collected 1,072 valid samples and has a confidence level of 95 percent with a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
NOT ENOUGH: Although the US is to deliver Switchblade 300s and Altius 600M-Vs to Taiwan, military leaders believe the nation needs more attack drones, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has included the funding needed to mass-produce Type-1 and Type-2 suicide drones in next year’s budget plan, a military source said yesterday. Although the US government last month approved sales of Switchblade 300 loitering munitions and Altius 600M-V uncrewed aerial vehicles to Taiwan, which are scheduled for delivery between this year and the next, military leaders assessed that Taiwan would still have an inadequate number of attack drones to bolster national defense, the source said, asking to remain anonymous. Taiwan needs to mass produce locally made attack drones, including Type-1 and Type-2 suicide drones, they