On the anniversary of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) re-election in 2020, the Kuomintang (KMT) conducted a poll on several major Democratic Progress Party (DPP) governance directions, allowing the public to rate the performance of the Tsai government’s performance over the past year. The KMT pointed out that various mistakes in the Tsai administration's governance have happened one after another. The Tsai government not only failed to meet the expectations of the 8.17 million voters in its internal affairs and foreign diplomacy, but also lost the public’s trust, while shirking responsibility for local governments and the grassroots on issues such as the recent lack of water, electricity, and vaccines. With this total lack of logical planning, it is not difficult to understand that public opinion has pointed out that Tsai Ing-wen has failed in governing. According to this latest poll, public opinion in Taiwan has scored Tsai Ing-wen's overall administration with a score of 4.88 points out of 10 points. In terms of details, including "low salary improvement", "protection of labor", "environmental ecology", "judicial reform", "cross-Strait relations", "diplomatic relations", etc., all scores were less than 5 points. The KMT emphasized that the embarrassing results are all due to the fact that the administration of Tsai Ing-wen and her ruling team are asleep on the job, as well as a sense of arrogance due to a landslide in her re-election votes, which has created an atmosphere of high resentment in Taiwan's public opinion.

In one of the latest surveys conducted by the TVBS Poll Center commissioned by the KMT, one of the questions asked for those surveyed were to directly score Tsai Ing-wen’s political performance. On the same topic last year (2020), the Tsai government got 6.19 points in overall governance. However, one year later, she only received 4.88 points, a large decline, exposing a high dissatisfaction the overall Taiwanese population feel towards Tsai Ing-wen’s internet-meme strategy of governance. 

First of all, looking at the underworld violence problem closely related to public security, up to 75.4% of the interviewed people expressed the seriousness of the underworld violence problem in Taiwan. Among them, 69.5% of the DPP supporters interviewed also agree with that solving the problem of gang violence should be the consensus of the whole people and the people want more than just an apology from Tsai Ing-wen. However, a few days ago, family members of DPP cadres were revealed to be involved in organized crime gangs. Although the DPP stated that it would review related policies, people do not have confidence in reforms of the DPP (62.0%). Among them, 26.9% of DPP supporters said they had no confidence, and 61.6% of those surveyed without party orientation said they had no confidence.

(1) Improvement of low salary: According to the results of recent polls, the decline from 5.62 points last year to 4.41 points this year is quite significant. In the 2016 election campaign, Tsai Ing-wen said that "a basic salary of NT$30,000 is her dream." A few days ago, the DPP hyped up that "the basic salary adjustment for within five years in office is would be better than Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) eight years in power", but in fact the basic salary was only increased to NT$24,000, which is far from Tsai Ing-wen’s promise of "a basic salary of NT$30,000". In 2016, Tsai Ing-wen's proposal of a "Basic Salary Act" was a campaign political plank that has not been fulfilled so far. Obviously, Tsai Ing-wen’s administration has never been able to improve the feelings of the low salaries of the people in Taiwan, and people have become increasingly dissatisfied.

(2) Labor protection: This year, on Labor Day, the DPP declared that "workers should stand together, care about the labor situation, and pay attention to labor rights." However, poll results show that the ruling party only scored 4.98 points this year, which is far below last year's 5.92 points. Obviously, the Tsai government's labor protection policy is getting worse and worse. The Tsai government has never been able to effectively solve the issues that people are most concerned about, such as low wages, overwork, high youth unemployment, and balancing labor relations. Tsai’s so-called "Labor is the softest place in my heart" has become an ironic statement. As for the labor insurance annuity, the Bureau of Labor Insurance estimated that it will go bankrupt in 2026 after actuarial calculations; however, the DPP has not yet proposed any reform plan except for its continued neglect and disregard. This is an irresponsible act of abandoning labor rights.

(3) Environmental protection and ecology: Environmental protection and ecology were originally the most important issues that the DPP stood for and promoted. According to the polls, last year, the DPP received the high score of 6.13 points among all survey questions, but this year it has fallen sharply to only 4.93 points. The Tsai government not only failed to maintain Taiwan's environmental protection and ecology, but also tended to accelerate its deterioration. It is apparent that public opinion has turned against President Tsai's betrayal of environmental protection and ecological values in the past year. In order to cover up its misguided energy policy, the Tsai government not only allowed the destruction of the millennium-old coralline algae reef, but also used a large amount of coal-powered thermal power generators which polluted environment.

(4) Judicial reform: Judicial reform has always been a topic of dissatisfaction with President Tsai. Last year’s poll results ranked Tsai’s performance at the lowest 4.96 points among all facets, and this year it set a record low of 4.12 points. Obviously, the Tsai government is still unwilling to reform even if it sees the people's strong dissatisfaction with judicial reforms, and it is unwilling to put forward a clear plan, which has already made the people lose confidence in social justice. The DPP, with gangsters serving as national policy advisers, and even allowing the underworld gangs to penetrate the ruling party has exposed the crisis of deterioration in Taiwan’s public security, and the people are at height of anxiety and inability to seek justice. The KMT believes that President Tsai must bear the biggest responsibility.

(5) Cross-Strait relations: After Tsai Ing-wen came to power, Cross-Strait relations have almost become "no relations". Last year, the people gave 5.52 points with regard to "cross-Strait relations" and held high expectations. However, despite excluding political factors such as elections, Tsai Ing-wen still has made no breakthroughs in cross-Strait relations. With a score of 4.49 this year, the Tsai government has not stopped manipulating ideological repel towards Mainland China. Even if the newly-appointed Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) hopes that Cross-Strait relations will take steps forward, but the Tsai government would only allow Cross-Strait relations to continuously remain tense, leaving the Taiwan Strait at risk of being on the brink of war considering the lack mutual trust.

(6) Diplomatic relations: Although Tsai Ing-wen has long claimed to be doing its utmost to establish diplomacy through pragmatic means as well as to actively participate in the international community, public opinion obviously does not fully agree with the actions of the Tsai government. Last year’s poll gave Tsai 5.64 points, and this year only 4.89 points. The DPP often uses international information about Taiwan for domestic political propaganda. However, this approach does not help the country's actual foreign affairs, nor does it substantially help the country's diplomatic relations or participation in international activities. This year, Taiwan has been unable to participate in WHA for the fifth consecutive year, and it is also difficult to enter other international organizations. In addition to this, considering the current severe pandemic, it is even more difficult for the Republic of China (R.O.C.) to obtain international assistance in obtaining vaccines. Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to assist other countries in obtaining vaccines, some countries have loosened their diplomatic relations with Taiwan due to vaccine factors. Obviously, Tsai Ing-wen's diplomatic achievements have been a matter of “talking the talk, but not walking the walk” and the people can see this fact in complete clarity.

The KMT said that on the anniversary of Tsai Ing-wen's re-election, public opinion surveys gave her a failing score higher than a passing grade. However, although the Tsai government is stuck in the predicament of low public support, it does not acknowledge this reality, and is not afraid to oppose public opinion. The Tsai government ignores the people’s suggestions and aspirations. People’s pain and anger index would still be on the rise. If the Tsai government continues to adopt a policy of deceiving the people, lower poll results will follow in the near future.

This poll was conducted by the TVBS polling center commissioned by the KMT from May 4 to May 10 this year. The poll randomly sampled citizens using the last two digits of local phone numbers with telephone interviews of Taiwan citizens over 20 years of age. There were 1,065 valid samples, and the sampling error is within plus or minus 3.0 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.

（This is an abridged version of an official KMT Chinese language press release）