More than 60 percent of respondents in a poll said they were satisfied with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) performance during her US visit, and more than 70 percent believed the trip would contribute positively to her presidential bid, Taiwan Brain Trust said yesterday.
“According to the results of our latest opinion poll, 64.4 percent of respondents said that they were satisfied with Tsai’s performance during the trip, with only 16.3 percent saying they were not satisfied,” Taiwan Brain Trust chairman Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) told a news conference in Taipei. “Moreover, 71.3 percent of respondents believed that the visit would have a positive impact on her presidential campaign, while only 19.9 percent disagreed.”
Meanwhile, 71.8 percent of respondents agreed with Tsai’s remarks about maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
In addition, “67.6 percent of respondents agreed with Tsai’s promise to create a ‘consistent, predictable and sustainable cross-strait relationship,’ and 49.2 percent were confident that the DPP is capable of maintaining peaceful and stable cross-trait ties if it is elected to power,” Wu said.
The survey also pitted Tsai against potential Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rivals in the January presidential election — Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), New Taipei City Mayor and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) — with Tsai consistently emerging as the winner.
According to poll numbers, Tsai would garner 55 percent of support against Hung’s 31.3 percent, 49.1 percent over Wang’s 38.4 percent, 52.5 percent versus Chu’s 37.1 percent and 68.4 percent against Wu’s 19.2 percent.
The poll was conducted last weekend with 1,085 valid samples from people aged 20 and above, who were randomly selected by telephone across the nation.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,