The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration has suffered a steep decline in approval ratings due to its handling of key labor legislation and increased Chinese military activity around Taiwan, according to a survey published by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation yesterday.
The DPP has experienced a steep decline in support, with only 23.4 percent of respondents expressing support for the party last month, down from 30.2 percent in September last year.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) approval rating dropped by 2.7 percentage points from November to 35.9 percent last month, while her disapproval rating rose from 39.8 percent to 46.6 percent during the same period, the poll found.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Tsai’s average approval rating last year was 35.33 percent, lower than her predecessors, who averaged 51.65 percent in their first years in office, foundation chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said.
Premier William Lai’s (賴清德) approval rating also fell by 12.3 percentage points from November to 47.4 percent last month, while his disapproval rating rose from 27.2 to 38.6 percent during the period.
Tsai and Lai both scored low on the “feeling thermometer,” which measures how respondents view politicians on a 0-100 scale, with 100 points reflecting the highest level of favorability, zero the lowest and 50 neutral feelings.
Tsai scored 46.94, a drastic decline from her highest score of 69.08 in May 2016 when she assumed office.
She is favored less than Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who scored 51.52 in a foundation survey in November, and Tsai’s score of 46.94 was only slightly higher than former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 41.64 points when he left office in May 2016.
Lai scored 54.24, down from 62.02 in October, while Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) remained the most popular politician at 59.53 points.
The poll found that 49.1 percent of respondents approved of a Cabinet proposal to amend the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to conditionally ease a requirement that caps the maximum number of consecutive working days at six, while 37.2 percent disapproved.
A proposal allowing employers to lower the minimum rest time between shifts from 11 hours to eight was approved by 55.5 percent of the respondents, while 32.7 percent disapproved.
The poll found that 53.1 percent of respondents agreed with the amendments in general, while 36.4 percent disagreed.
Only less than 20 percent of companies require raising the number of consecutive working days, but the amendment has prioritized the interests of those businesses over others’, National Chengchi University law professor Lin Chia-ho (林佳和) said.
“The policy has become a zero-sum game. A more delicate policymaking process should be enacted to rank policy options to achieve a win-win situation,” Lin said.
The poll found that 73.2 percent of respondents could not accept Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft regularly flying around Taiwan, while 20.1 percent said it was acceptable.
Tsai’s lack of a strong response to Chinese military activity was unacceptable for 61.3 percent of the respondents, while 27.1 percent said it was acceptable.
“China is conducting a psychological warfare, but it accidentally creates consensus among Taiwanese” against foreign threat, Tamkang University Center of Advanced Technology executive director Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said.
Support for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) climbed from 18.9 percent in September to 21.4 percent last month.
Support for the New Power Party also climbed from 6.4 to 8.4 percent during the period.
The survey found that 47.4 percent of respondents disapproved of a Cabinet proposal to reduce taxes for people with an annual income of NT$10 million (US$335,030) or more from 45 to 40 percent, while 43.6 percent approved the proposal.
A Cabinet proposal to raise a corporate income tax from 17 to 20 percent was approved by 47.5 percent, but disapproved by 42 percent.
Another Cabinet proposal to nationalize irrigation associations and replace association elections with government appointments was disapproved by 50.6 percent of respondents, while 37.6 percent approved.
The survey was conducted on Monday and Tuesday last week and collected 1,085 valid samples. It has a margin of error of 2.98 percentage points.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS