A poll by the Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN) found 55 percent of respondents favor perpetual maintenance of the cross-strait “status quo,” a rise of 8 percent from last year.
According to the poll released yesterday, 16 percent of the respondents said that they would like Taiwan to declare its formal independence as soon as possible, while 12 percent of respondents said that they would prefer to maintain the “status quo” now and declare independence later.
Four percent said they would like Taiwan to be reunified with China as soon as possible, while 9 percent said they would prefer future reunification.
Four percent said they had no comment or declined to answer.
Perpetually maintaining the “status quo” enjoyed the highest support since the UDN began conducting the surveys in 2000.
Meanwhile, support for “independence as soon as possible” and “reunification as soon as possible” both dipped by 3 percentage points from last year.
Although a large percentage of the respondents believe that China will become the world’s strongest nation and eventually lead the world, more than 50 percent said they do not have a good impression of China.
The poll found 59 percent of respondents think that China will become the strongest nation in the world, while 32 percent disagree.
However, for six consecutive years, more than 50 percent of the respondents — 58 percent this year — said they have a negative image of the Chinese government, while only 28 percent said they have a positive image of the Chinese government.
Although a slightly lower number of people said they have a “bad impression” of Chinese people, the figure — 51 percent — is still far higher than those who have a “good impression” of Chinese people, which is about 28 percent.
Asked what impression they have of the Chinese government, most of the respondents answered “corruption,” “dictatorship” and “non-democratic.”
Most of the respondents said that their impression of Chinese people include “uncivilized behavior,” “inconsiderate,” “law violations” and “showing off their wealth.”
Although a majority of the respondents believe that China might become the strongest nation in the world, less than 50 percent of the respondents said they worry that China’s threat against Taiwan would intensify.
The poll showed that 34 percent of the respondents said they are worried that a strong China would have a negative impact on Taiwan’s development, while 62 percent said they are not.
The poll was conducted in the evenings from Wednesday to Saturday last week, with 1,042 valid adult samples randomly selected by telephone across the nation.
Responding to the poll results, the Presidential Office yesterday said the “status quo” refers to the cross-strait peace and prosperity since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office seven years ago.
The Democratic Progressive Party said the results show that its presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) cross-strait policy of maintaining the “status quo” is gaining the trust of the public.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
QUICK LOOK: The amendments include stricter recall requirements and Constitutional Court procedures, as well as a big increase in local governments’ budgets Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber. Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday. The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight. Amendments to Article 4
RSS