A majority of Taiwanese support their president's call for a March 20 referendum on whether China should stop pointing hundreds of missiles at the island, according to a TV poll broadcast yesterday.
The survey by TVBS, a cable news station, said 43 percent of respondents supported the historic referendum and 38 percent were against it. The remaining respondents had no opinion.
The telephone poll was conducted on Sunday, four days after US President George W. Bush warned Taiwan that he would oppose unilateral steps toward changing the status quo between Taiwan and China.
The TVBS poll reported that 44 percent of respondents believed Taiwan shouldn't have to consider Washington's stance when planning a referendum, while 42 percent said it does. The remainder had no opinion.
The poll of 1,271 people had a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.
If the referendum goes ahead, it will be held on March 20, when the presidential election is held.
The TVBS poll showed Lien Chan (
A poll by the China Times, a pro-unification daily, reported yesterday that the candidates were about even.
The survey, released yesterday, said support for Chen and Lien was 34.5 and 34.1 percent respectively. The remaining respondents were undecided.
The newspaper's telephone poll included 1,080 responses. It was conducted on Friday and Saturday and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Meanwhile, Chen has refused to back down despite intense pressure for him to scuttle the referendum.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but