Nearly two-thirds, or 63.8 percent, of Taiwanese are dissatisfied with the government’s policy of allowing imports of pork containing traces of ractopamine, a poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed.
The survey found that 27.6 percent of respondents were satisfied with the policy.
Asked if they would support overturning the policy in a referendum, 62.3 percent of respondents said “yes,” while 30.8 percent said “no,” the foundation said.
According to the poll, 62.4 percent said they would likely vote in a referendum over the matter, while 33.4 percent said they would not.
A referendum question spearheaded by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) would ask voters on Aug. 28 if they agree that the government should completely ban imports of meat, offal and related products from pigs fed ractopamine, a leanness-enhancing additive.
Another referendum that might take place on the same day proposes moving a planned liquefied natural gas terminal from the coast of Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) to protect algal reefs in the area. The signature drive for the referendum is being led by Rescue Datan’s Algal Reefs Alliance convener Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政).
According to the poll, 53.8 percent of respondents said they would like to see an algal reef referendum pass, while 24.9 percent said they would not.
Of the respondents, 51.4 percent said they would vote in such a referendum, while 34.5 percent said they would not.
The two referendums have an overlapping supporter base and those voting for one would likely vote for the other as well, the foundation said.
The poll also asked respondents about the government’s COVID-19 vaccine policies, with 62 percent saying they were satisfied with the policies and 30.4 percent saying they were not.
According to the poll, 74.4 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the vaccine purchase program proposed by Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), while 15.2 percent said they were not.
The poll found that 68.6 percent of respondents said they were confident that Taiwan would produce its own COVID-19 vaccines, while 24.2 percent said they were not.
Asked whether Taiwan should avoid using the phrase “Wuhan virus” to refer to COVID-19, 49 percent of the respondents said “no,” while 37 percent said “yes.”
Popular support for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was 58.4 percent, while her dissatisfaction rate was 27.1 percent, the poll found.
Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) popular support and dissatisfaction rates were 54.4 percent and 33.1 percent respectively, it showed.
The poll questions were designed by foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) and conducted by the Focus Survey Research company on Monday and Tuesday last week.
The poll collected 1,079 valid samples and has a margin of error of 2.98 percentage points.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
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
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
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