A poll by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center showed that a record-high 23.8 percent of respondents support Taiwanese independence, while a record-low 32.7 percent regard themselves as both Chinese and Taiwanese.
Meanwhile, 60.4 percent said they are Taiwanese, according to the poll, released on Wednesday.
The data were collected from three separate polls titled “Taiwan Independence versus Unification with the Mainland Trend Distribution in Taiwan,” “Taiwanese/Chinese Identification Trend Distribution in Taiwan” and “Preferences Trend Distribution in Taiwan.”
The data showed that the percentage of people who regard themselves as Taiwanese is the highest since June 1992, and those identifying themselves as solely Chinese dropped to 3.5 percent.
The number of Taiwan independence supporters and those inclined toward an immediate declaration of independence was the highest since December 1994.
Support for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) reached a new low at 23.5 percent, compared with the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) 25.6 percent, the poll showed.
Most respondents who had once supported the KMT had taken a neutral stance and did not now support the DPP, the data showed.
Earlier this month, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) criticized the Taiwan independence clause in the DPP’s party charter, saying it is neither possible nor necessary to pursue independence because the Republic of China has been a sovereign state since it was established in 1912.
Fu Jen Catholic University assistant professor Chou Wei-hang (周偉航) in a recent article posted on his blog claimed Ma has come to promote independence.
The Ma administration’s cross-strait policies attempting to draw Taiwanese away from ideas of independence and toward eventual unification with China have instead driven Taiwanese further from Beijing, Chou wrote in an article dated Saturday last week.
Chou’s article also said that some of the more neutral cross-strait policies were affected by Ma’s incompetence, adding that successful policies in Ma’s terms — including increasing the number of countries allowing Taiwanese access to visa waiver programs or visas upon arrival — emphasized the difference between Taiwan and China.
No matter how much Ma would detest it, his “place in history” will be as a promoter of Taiwanese independence, Chou’s article said.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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