Most Taiwanese say they know little about the cross-strait service trade agreement, but a majority oppose it, a survey by Chinese-language magazine Business Week showed yesterday.
A total of 80.9 percent of respondents said they do not have sufficient knowledge about the pact, which the government said will improve cross-strait service exchanges, the survey indicated, after earlier pacts cut taxes on hundreds of bilateral exports.
“The findings suggest a communication failure on the part of the government as hundreds of students occupy the legislature to demand a transparent review,” Shih Hsin University finance professor Kuo Nai-fong (郭迺鋒) told a media briefing.
Overall, 56.3 percent of respondents opposed the pact, while 22.3 percent supported it, the survey showed, after polling 1,079 Taiwanese aged 20 and older.
Among respondents with a neutral political stance, 51.5 percent disapproved of the pact, while 83 percent of opposition supporters utterly rejected it, the survey found. The pact had the backing of 50.6 percent of pan-blue respondents.
Worries about potential job losses accounted for the resistance, especially among students, the survey showed.
About 70 percent of student respondents withheld their support over concern that the pact would make job-hunting more difficult.
Whatever their political affiliations, 76.1 percent of the respondents lent support to the students’ plea that the pact return to committee review before heading to final readings, the survey said.
In addition, 64.9 percent of the respondents supported the student occupation of the legislative chamber as the move has helped raise public awareness of an important policy, the survey said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about