The percentage of people identifying themselves as “Taiwanese” has reached a record high, according to a poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation.
More than 80 percent of respondents self-identified as Taiwanese, compared with 8.1 percent who identified themselves as Chinese and 7.6 percent who identified as both in the poll, whose wording asked respondents if they viewed themselves as “Taiwanese,” “Chinese” or had “other thoughts.”
When asked to choose between eventual independence and unification with China, more than 51 percent said they favored independence, while 15 percent favored unification and 25 percent favored maintaining the “status quo.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“The results represent a historic peak for identification as Taiwanese and show that it has decisively replaced identification as Chinese as Taiwan’s mainstream ethnic identification,” foundation chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said, attributing respondents’ relatively high support for independence to the poll’s focus on an eventual future rather than the immediate choice used in many surveys.
Chao Chun-shan (趙春山), a prominent pan-blue academic and professor in the Institute of China Studies at Tamkang University, said the result demonstrated the continued failure of Chinese overtures to halt increasing support for independence.
“China’s strategic objective has not changed, but as Taiwan’s democracy has developed, [Beijing] has come to realize that it has to move from placing its hope in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to placing its hope in Taiwanese,” Chao said. “However, the results of eight years of cross-straits exchanges [under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)] have not exerted the influence necessary to prevent the mainland’s [China’s] fears from being realized as more Taiwanese have come to advocate independence, while fewer favor unification.”
While maintaining dialogue over education and culture, China will likely move to “differentiate” policies benefiting Taiwanese to target people with receptive attitudes, he said, adding that there are already moves to sanction businesspeople who favor independence.
The poll showed that 70 percent of respondents approved of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) government appointments and handling of major national affairs less than one week after taking office, with 56 percent favoring her Democratic Progress Party (DPP) compared with 21.5 percent favoring the KMT.
Tsai’s approval rating carried over to her inaugural address, with almost 70 percent of respondents approving her refusal to agree to Chinese demands to acknowledge the so-called “1992 consensus.”
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
While 80 percent said they did not want to see cross-straits relations regress, more than 52 percent said they would blame China — not Tsai — if it cuts off cross-straits negotiations in response to her refusal to acknowledge the “1992 consensus.”
While the DPP’s approval ratings represented a historic high, Tsai’s approval ratings were similar to those Ma had shortly after he took office in 2008 and likely reflected a “honeymoon period,” You said.
Shih Hsin University professor Peng Huai-en (彭懷恩) said that while there appeared to be some shift in the political landscape, the effect was clouded by a “social desirability” bias, which he said often creates a temporary spike in polling numbers for election winners.
“People like to add icing to the cake,” he said. “The KMT is not going to be knocked out any time soon.”
The survey interviewed 1,089 respondents using random digit dialing and had a margin of error of 2.97 percentage points.
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would