Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has retained a more than 20-point lead over the presidential candidate fielded by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), despite the party’s decision to replace Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) with KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), a Cross-Strait Policy Association poll released yesterday indicated.
Tsai was supported by 45.2 percent of those polled, giving her a 23.3-point lead over Chu who garnered 21.9 percent, with 13.8 percent of respondents backing People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜).
According to this and other association surveys, Tsai’s support is still about 40 percent, while Soong’s has dropped to a new low, giving the KMT’s presidential campaign a boost of 3.4 percentage points following its selection of Chu.
Photo: CNA
Among respondents who identify as pan-blue, 53.5 percent support Chu, showing a 7.8-percentage-point increase from an Oct. 7 poll conducted by the association.
Among pan-blue respondents, 23.6 percent said they would vote for Soong and 11.2 percent for Tsai, a 3-percentage-point and 1-percentage-point increase, respectively, from the previous survey.
In a head-to-head vote between Tsai and Chu, 54.4 percent of respondents said they would vote for Tsai while 27.2 percent for Chu.
Of those polled, 73.7 percent said Tsai had the best chance of becoming president. Only 8.7 percent thought Chu would win, while 2.1 percent said Soong would.
Regarding Chu’s decision to run for president even though he had promised to serve out his full term as New Taipei City mayor, 53.3 percent of respondents said they agreed he had betrayed his promise.
However, 41.1 percent said they agreed that Chu’s decision was made because he had no other choice in light of the party’s dismal election prospects.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS