Xi Jinping’s Popularity Rating Exceeds that of Tsai Ing-wen

  Xi Jinping’s Popularity Rating Exceeds that of Tsai Ing-wen

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

January 15, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

The Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation made public the results of its recent opinion poll; as was generally expected, President Tsai’s satisfaction rating continues to decline. Unexpectedly, Mainland leader Xi Jinping’s popularity rating [in Taiwan], surprisingly, exceeded that of Tsai Ing-wen, 51.1% to 46.9%. In other words, for the public of Taiwan, the Mainland leader, who has been deemed as representing a big power, is more popular than a president chosen by a democratic election. The changes in public opinion, as shown by this poll, should have some revelations for both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Precisely because the gap in cross-Strait strengths and influence increasingly widens, the mentality of the public in Taiwan has also been quietly changing; more and more people in Taiwan are beginning to look squarely at the fact of China’s rise and scrutinize again the merits of the Mainland’s system and the governance performance it has brought. Especially when contrasting with the predicament of the current domestic governance in Taiwan, Taiwanese have even truly felt that the simplistic dichotomy in classification based on ideology in the past, i.e., the stereotypical image that that democratic Taiwan is superior to the autocratic Mainland, can no longer explain the objective reality of the gap in the performance of cross-Strait governance; politically correct slogans can no longer solve the many thorny problems faced by Taiwan's society.

Undoubtedly the ruling DPP should bear the most responsibility; the Tsai government is therefore asked that it must look squarely, in good faith, at the fact of China’s rise, and not merely stopping at sloganeering. Of course, if we want to exchange learning and experiences with the Mainland, we must first resume interchanges; currently, the Tsai government's avoidance of defining the nature of cross-Strait relations is obviously not helpful to resolving the question.

Taiwan's political figures must shake off their democratic arrogance, treat, with a true humble attitude, the Mainland's development experience objectively and rationally, and to seek what may be borrowed for Taiwan in the process.

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