President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) approval rating increased by more than 10 percentage points in the wake of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) Jan. 2 speech about Taiwan, a Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation poll released yesterday found.
Tsai’s approval rating rebounded from a record low of 24.3 percent to 34.5 percent, her highest since June last year, because of her defiant response to Xi’s speech, foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) told a Taipei news conference.
Her disapproval rating also declined by 12.8 percentage points to 47.5 percent from a record high of 60.3 percent, You said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“This was a dramatic change and the Chinese factor was the only reason. Xi did Tsai a great favor, although it was unintended,” he said.
Asked whether they were happy with Tsai’s cross-strait policies, 43.2 percent of respondents said they were, while 49 percent said they were not, the poll found.
Compared with a month before, those who approved of Tsai’s cross-strait policies increased by 18 percentage points, while those who disapproved of them fell by 17 percentage points.
The jump in Tsai’s approval rating coincided with a marked increase in the number of respondents supporting Taiwan independence, You said.
Asked whether Taiwan should become independent or unify with China in the future, 47. 5 percent of respondents said they support independence, 22.7 percent said they support unification and 18.5 percent preferred the “status quo,” the poll showed.
It was the most support for independence since September 2017, the foundation said.
Support for independence increased by 12.4 percentage points from last month’s poll, while supporters of unification and the “status quo” fell by 1.1 and 10.7 percentage points respectively.
“The figures suggest more people who previously supported maintaining the ‘status quo’ now support independence because of Xi’s speech, while the number of people supporting unification remain about the same,” You said.
Questions related to Xi’s speech yielded similar results, with the majority of respondents supporting independence and one-quarter supporting unification, he said.
Asked if they agreed with Xi that “the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China,” 24 percent said they agreed, while 68.3 percent disagreed, the poll found.
Asked if they support peaceful unification and China’s “one country, two systems” framework, 24.6 percent said yes, compared with 67.1 percent who opposed it.
In addition, 19.2 percent of respondents said Taiwan needs to rely on the so-called “1992 consensus” for survival, while 67.5 percent disagreed.
Former premier William Lai (賴清德) received a high approval rating of 53.2 percent, an increase of 5.8 percentage points over a similar poll in September last year, You said.
Asked whether they have confidence in the new Cabinet led by Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), 38.7 percent of respondents said they did, while 52 percent said they did not, the poll found.
The poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday last week, collected 1,074 valid samples.
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
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
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
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS