Taipei, Sept. 17 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen's approval rating has rebounded substantially from a record low one month ago to nearly 50 percent after she appointed Lai Ching-te as premier on Sept. 5, according to a recent survey.
The Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation, which conducted its latest monthly tracking poll on Sept. 11 and 12, said the significant rise in Tsai's approval rating can be attributed to her choice of the highly popular Lai as the head of the government's executive branch.
In the latest survey, 46.4 percent of respondents said they approve of the way Tsai is leading the country, including personnel management and policy making, up 16.6 percentage points from a month earlier.
Some 36 percent of respondents expressed disapproval, down 13.6 percentage points from the foundation's previous survey released in August, when only 29.8 percent of respondents approved of her performance, while 50 percent disapproved.
The latest survey also found that about 69 percent of respondents backed Tsai's appointment of Lai as premier, while 18 percent disliked the move.
That indicates that the appointment is widely seen as Tsai's best decision since she was inaugurated in May 2016, said foundation chairman You Ying-lung.
The poll collected 1,074 valid samples and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.99 percentage points.
