The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) public opinion rating has dropped to a five-year low, while support for smaller parties has grown, a survey released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation found.
The survey asked respondents which political party they most supported, if at all.
Public support edged down to 22.6 percent for the DPP and declined to 18.4 percent for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), but reached a new high of 15.6 percent for the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP).
Another 6.3 percent of respondents said that they support the New Power Party (NPP) and 3.5 percent said the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP), while 1.2 percent answered “other party,” 30.8 percent said they did not support any party and 1.7 percent had no answer.
The DPP’s support rate was 0.6 percentage points lower than last month and the KMT’s was 2.8 percentage points lower, while all other parties saw an increase in public support, foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) said.
Support for the TPP was 7.1 percentage points higher than last month, while the NPP’s was 3.3 percentage points higher and the TSP’s was 1.6 percentage points higher, he said.
The number of “neutral” respondents was 7.1 percentage points lower than last month, he added.
“Such a large drop in the popularity of the ruling party is cause for reflection, and to have the popularity of the largest opposition party drop, too, is also uncommon,” he said.
The survey also asked respondents to rate the performance of Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the performance of the mayors of the six special municipalities.
Chen received an approval rating of 62.9 percent, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) had 45.5 percent and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) had 36.7 percent.
Asked to grade Chen’s pandemic performance on a scale of one to 100, 19 percent of respondents answered “90 or above,” 16.5 percent answered “80 to 89,” 11.7 percent answered “61 to 79,” 19.7 percent said “60,” 29.7 percent said “less than 60” and the remainder had no answer.
“Basically, this means that 67 percent of the population gave Chen a passing grade, while 36 percent specifically gave him a grade of above 80 percent,” You said.
However, while the numbers show general satisfaction with Chen’s overall performance, by all metrics the administration has hit an 18-month low, You said, adding that the change in approval correlated with a sharp increase in local COVID-19 infections since the start of last month.
Public support for the mayors has mostly remained unchanged since last month, he said.
For the survey, which was commissioned by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation, Focus Survey Research interviewed 1,072 people by telephone between Tuesday and Saturday last week. It has a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we