Tsai led her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to landslide victories in the island’s presidential and parliamentary election on January 16 last year, giving her a mandate for her reformist agenda. However, an opinion poll released by the pro-DPP Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation late last month put her approval rating at a fresh low of 38 per cent, down from 41.4 per cent in November and 69.9 per cent in May.
Another opinion poll conducted last month by the TVBS cable news network – which is close to the mainland-friendly opposition Kuomintang (KMT) – put Tsai’s approval rating at just 27 per cent, down from a post-inaugural high of 47 per cent in June.
This has led her to dramatically scale back on her previous attempts to play up to those who call for Taiwan to become independent, with a legislative acknowledgement that the administration formed in 1949 did so illegally and at the expense of the Chinese people:Meanwhile, Kuomintang members and employees protested against a law passed in July that paved the way for the confiscation of the party’s “ill-gotten” assets, including those it fled to Taiwan with in 1949
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