Poll reveals 71.7% support students' demands, 83.3% disatisfied with government response

The DPP issued a survey on March 27 centered on the topic of the students’ movement against the nontransparent Cross Strait Services Trade Agreement. DPP Spokesperson Lin Chun-hsian said, when asking survey participants whether they supported the students’ request to redraw the agreement and return to the negotiation table with China, 71.7% of the respondents said to support the students’ demands.

Mr. Lin said that many polls conducted on this topic consistently showed that above 70% responded in favor of supporting the students’ movement. Additionally, when they were asked whether they approved or disapproved of the government’s way of handling the students’ movement, there were 83.3% in total that responded to be “strongly dissatisfied” (63.6%) or “sort of dissatisfied” (19.3%).

According to Mr. Lin, it is rare to see a high number of people expressing strong dissatisfaction against the government among different political issues in Taiwan that the DPP have surveyed. With responses higher than 80% showing dissatisfaction, it is clear that the Ma Administration has lost its credibility among the public.

Additional numbers in the poll show that 67% of the respondents, due to the students’ movement, learned more about the services agreement, which Mr. Lin said, is a positive point since it brought society to learn more about socio-economic issues. Consequently, 69% believed that the students’ movement brought a positive influence to Taiwan society.

DPP Survey on the Student Movement against Non-Transparency in the Cross Strait Service Trade Agreement

Time: March 25, 2014

Sampling Number: 914

Margin of Error: 95 % confidence level, ±3.31%

Targeted Audience: Eligible voters 20 years-old or higher   

Sample selection based on age, gender and residential address

(January 2014 data from the Ministry of the Interior)

 

1.     Do you agree on the students’ request to “redraw the Cross Strait Services Trade Agreement and renegotiate with China”?
Overall	Definitely	Sort of	Not really	Not at all	No opinion	Total
	48.9%	22.8%	8.1%	8.5%	11.7%	100%
	71.7%		16.6%

 

2.     Do you approve or disapprove the students’ decision to occupy the legislature?
Overall	Approve	Sort of	Not really	Not at all	No opinion	Total
	34.5%	21.1%	15.7%	21.6%	7.2%	100%
	55.6%		37.3%

 

3.     Up until now, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the government’s way of handling the students’ movement?
Overall	Very satisfied	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat dissatisfied	Very dissatisfied	No opinion	Total
	3.0%	7.3%	19.8%	63.6%	6.4%	100%
	10.2%		83.3%

4.     As a result of this students’ movement surfacing, do you feel that you gained more knowledge about the Cross Strait Services Trade Agreement?
Overall	Learned more	No change	Total
	67.0%	33.0%	100%

5.     Who do you think should give concessions in this students’ movement? The government or the students?
Overall	Government	Students	No opinion	Total
	61.5%	18.2%	20.3%	100%

 

6.     As contentions surround the Cross Strait Services Trade Agreement led to the students’ movement, who should be the one held responsible? This question was asked without giving answer options.
Overall	President Ma Ying-jeou	Government	Premier Jiang Yi-hua	Legislative Yuan	KMT legislators	DPP legislators	Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng	Students	No opinion, Others	Total
	58.0%	3.8%	2.8%	2.9%	2.3%	1.7%	1.2%	3.8%	23.4%	100%

 

7.     Overall, do you think there is a positive or negative significance for Taiwan’s future from this time’s student movement.
Overall	Positive	Negative	No opinion	Total
	69.0%	21.4%	9.6%	100%

 

Poll reveals 71.7% support students' demands, 83.3% disatisfied with government response