The latest poll from Formosa Television shows President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) achieving a pivotal turnaround in public support, with his trust ratings overtaking distrust levels for the first time. His approval rating has climbed to 46%, narrowing the gap with his 48% disapproval rating to just two percentage points, suggesting a potential even split may emerge.
Senior media analyst Huang Wei-han (黃暐瀚) attributes Lai's polling recovery to either the ruling party "doing something right" or the Kuomintang "doing something wrong," emphasizing that in Taiwan's current political landscape, "winning hearts and minds determines electoral success."
Writing on Facebook, Huang noted that Lai's approval and trust ratings hit their lowest point in August 2025, primarily due to public opposition to large-scale recall campaigns. Yet six months later, Lai's polling has rebounded significantly, suggesting the Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, may have "done something right" during this period.
Huang also suggests the opposition may have "done something wrong," pointing to U.S.-Taiwan tariff negotiations as evidence. While the KMT's central leadership and legislative caucus heavily criticized the tariff outcomes, polling shows a majority of public support, with 53% satisfied and 31.9% dissatisfied.
The polling results reveal that most Taiwanese voters operate without strict partisan loyalties, judging issues on their merits rather than party affiliation, Huang argues.
When the ruling party supported large-scale recalls, opponents naturally distanced themselves. Similarly, when the opposition harshly criticized U.S.-Taiwan tariffs, voters who supported the agreements expressed displeasure with the KMT.
Huang emphasizes that winning public support remains paramount: parties opposing majority opinion "will ultimately fail in electoral contests."
The poll was conducted December 22-24, 2025, designed and analyzed by Tai Li-an and executed by Beacon Market Research through computer-assisted telephone interviews. The survey targeted residents aged 20 and older across Taiwan's 22 counties and cities. Using dual-frame sampling of landline and mobile phones, with proportional stratified random sampling for landlines and random digit dialing for mobile numbers, researchers completed 1,083 interviews (705 landline, 378 mobile). The combined sample has a margin of error of ±3.0% at 95% confidence level, with ranking adjustments applied for gender, county, age cohorts, and education levels. （Related： Ex‑TSMC R&D Chief: Without EUV, China’s Chip Industry Is “Fighting With One Leg Broken” ｜ Latest ）
