A government poll released on Tuesday put President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) approval rating for his performance over the past three months at 47 percent.
The poll, conducted by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission last Thursday and Friday with 1,094 valid samples, found that 36.3 percent of respondents were displeased with Ma’s performance.
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) received an approval rating of 41.9 percent and a disapproval rating of 37.9 percent for the same period.
Forty-four percent of respondents were pleased with the Cabinet’s overall performance, while 39.6 percent expressed dissatisfaction.
On the Cabinet’s future performance, 57.4 percent said they were optimistic and 13.9 percent indicated they were not.
The poll found that 55 percent thought the Cabinet was doing a better job than two months ago, while 28 percent disagreed.
In addition, 52.5 percent of respondents were optimistic about Liu’s performance in the months ahead, while 13.6 percent were pessimistic.
Areas of dissatisfaction included the administration’s policies on commodity prices, social security and education reform.
In response, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Department of Culture and Information Director Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said that the Cabinet had released the survey to combat claims that its performance has been unsatisfactory.
He said that the high satisfaction rates in the survey were at odds with those conducted by the media and academic institutions.
Cheng said the government used the survey to cover the fact that the nation is facing a recession and surging inflation.
Hsiao Chuan-cheng (蕭全政), a political science professor at National Taiwan University, said the poll did not represent a dramatic change in the government’s approval ratings.
Hsiao said a poll conducted by the DPP two months ago found that Ma’s approval rating had plummeted to 37.1 percent, with his disapproval rating at 56.7 percent at a time when the public was unhappy about surging prices and the government’s ineffective response to damage caused by flooding.
Hsiao said the new government poll reflected the public’s approval of lower oil prices and the government’s efforts to strengthen its typhoon response measures.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS