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.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
RSS