Taipei, Nov 20 (DPA) A majority of Taiwan residents have more trust in US President Barack Obama than in their own president or Chinese President Hu Jintao, an opinion poll showed Friday.
The telephone survey of 1,004 adults by the Global View monthly magazine found that only 38.6 percent trust President Ma Ying-jeou, who lags well behind Obama’s 46.1 percent trust rate.

While 35.4 percent trust Tsai Ying-wen, chairwoman of Taiwan’s pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party, only 17.5 percent trust Hu.

Also, 52.9 percent said Obama was friendly towards Taiwan and 52.3 percent believed the US was in a better position to safeguard Taiwan’s interests than China.

Sixty-one percent said they are now unsatisfied with the performance of Ma, who won a landslide victory in the March 2008 election on the platform of seeking peace with China and improving the economy.

Analysts believe Ma’s ratings are down because of the government’s slow response to Typhoon Marakot, which hit Taiwan Aug 8 and killed nearly 700 people, and due to a high jobless rate.