Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) approval ratings remain high as he approaches 100 days in office, according to a poll conducted by Ming Chuan University.
More than 83 percent of residents surveyed were satisfied with Ko’s performance in poll results announced yesterday. A nearly unanimous 98 percent of pan-green camp voters were satisfied with Ko’s performance, compared with 70 percent of pan-blue voters.
In addition to overall approval ratings, the poll also surveyed city residents’ views of Ko’s performance on several prominent issues, with 87 percent of residents approving his handling of the removal or “improvement” of 226 cases of illegal construction and 79 percent approving his attitude in dealing with large corporations involved in city construction projects such as the Taipei Dome. Seventy-three percent of respondents approved of his pushing for affordable public housing, while 53 percent approved of his “frank” way of expressing himself.
The survey results drew a variety of reactions from Taipei city councilors.
Taipei City Councilor Wu Shih-cheng (吳世政) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said Ko’s approval ratings were “frightening,” demonstrating that the “Ko Wen-je phenomenon” was a “tornado” ripping through Taipei’s political landscape.
He said Ko, an independent, had grasped the implications of the digital age more fully than the KMT, laying out and implementing policies closely reflecting online opinion, while swiftly changing course in response to criticism.
However, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city council caucus whip Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said she was “not at all surprised” by the results, given Ko’s status as a new “political star” still in his “honeymoon period” — before this year’s city council session opens on April 13.
“So far, the issues Ko has addressed have synced with the expectations of city residents toward the new administration,” she said, adding that Ko had “picked the right battles” in taking on corporations and back-door dealing, because these issues could attract support across the political spectrum.
However, with the result of investigations and negotiations over controversial city construction projects unclear and no budget yet approved for his new policies, Ko’s performance so far was “a lot of thunder with little rainfall,” she said, adding that city councilors across the political spectrum were “whetting their knives” to take a stab at Ko’s proposals.
“Ko faces the challenge of coming up with a stable majority coalition within the city council,” she said, adding that his ability to mobilize the city government’s bureaucracy to support his policies also remained unclear.
The DPP holds 27 of the council’s 63 seats, compared with 28 seats held by the KMT. Small party and independent councilors hold the balance.
The Ming Chuan University survey was conducted using random dialing and had an effective sample of 1,084 residents over the age of 20. It had a margin of error of 2.97 percentage points.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we