President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is leading the presidential race in three hypothetical scenarios, according to a poll released yesterday by the Cross-Strait Policy Association.
Up against just Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential nominee, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), Tsai would win the election by 16.4 percent, with the two candidates claiming 50.1 percent and 33.7 percent of the vote, the poll showed.
If Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) joins the race, Tsai, Han and Gou would receive 38.7 percent, 26.7 percent and 23.2 percent of the vote respectively, it showed.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Tsai would lead with 33.2 percent of the vote in a hypothetical four-way race against Han, Gou and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who would win 24.3 percent, 18.1 percent and 13.9 percent respectively, it added.
The poll, which was commissioned by the association and carried out by Evidence-Based Survey and Research Co (循證民調), surveyed 1,087 adults on Monday and Tuesday, with a 95 percent confidence level and a sampling error of 2.97 percent.
Respondents were also asked for their views on the four politicians’ diplomatic abilities, as well as a number of government policies.
Most (35.7 percent) believed that Tsai is the most capable of handling Taiwan-US relations, followed by Gou (18.1 percent), Han (15.0 percent) and Ko (3.7 percent), the poll showed.
Tsai would also be the best at handling Taiwan-Japan relations, 36.8 percent said, compared with Gou’s and Han’s 13.8 percent and Ko’s 6.0 percent, it showed.
Asked which of the four would be the most capable of facing down Beijing’s threat and handling cross-strait relations, 32.2 percent said Tsai, 24.1 percent said Han, 15.8 percent said Gou and 4.7 percent said Ko, it added.
Meanwhile, 42.1 percent of respondents agreed with the Mainland Affairs Council’s plan to restrict “political propaganda that endangers national security” in a proposed bill to address “agents of the Chinese Communist Party,” while 25.6 percent disagreed, the poll showed.
Fifty-five percent supported deepening military ties with the US, while 25 percent opposed when given the example of US President Donald Trump approving the sale of 66 F-16V jets to Taiwan last month, it showed.
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