Seventy-three percent of Taiwanese do not consider the Chinese government a friend, a poll released on Tuesday by Academia Sinica showed — the highest figure since the poll started in 2012.
The poll, conducted by the China Impact Study thematic research team of Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology, asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement that “the Chinese government is a friend of Taiwan.”
Seventy-three percent disagreed, up from 58 percent of respondents in a similar poll in May last year.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
When broken down into age groups, the poll showed that 84 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 disagreed with the statement, followed by people aged 35 to 49 (78 percent), 50 to 64 (75 percent) and people aged 65 or older (75 percent).
Seventy-nine percent of respondents with a college degree or above disagreed with the statement, while the ratio was 74 percent for high-school or vocational high-school graduates or below.
Younger Taiwanese tend to be more discontent with the Chinese government, as it has turned its back on democracy and freedom, and disrespected the sovereignty of Taiwan, Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology researcher Jay Chen (陳志柔) said.
More than half, or 54 percent, of respondents who identified themselves as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supporters disagreed with the statement, the poll found.
Respondents who support the New Power Party (NPP) disagreed with the statement most at 97 percent.
They were followed by those who support the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) at 88 percent and those who support the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) at 81 percent, the survey showed.
Some factors from last year might have contributed to the poll results, such as the US-China trade dispute, the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) continuous attempts to impose a “one country, two systems” framework on Taiwan, Chen said.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has won the public’s support for preventing a COVID-19 outbreak, but the Chinese government has not toned down its hostility toward Taiwanese, causing even KMT supporters to stop believing that cross-strait relations are based on friendship and mutual trust, he said.
The poll indicates that Taiwan is distancing itself from China, which is especially evident among the younger generation, researcher Wu Chieh-min (吳介民) said.
According to the poll, 67.1 percent of respondents said that they supported the Hong Kong protests, while 32.9 percent said they did not.
A cross-analysis of the results showed that 85 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 were more supportive of the protests, while those aged 50 to 64 had the lowest enthusiasm for the movement, at 59 percent.
A cross-analysis of support for the Hong Kong protests against national identification showed that 77 percent of those who support the protests identified themselves as Taiwanese, while 16 percent identified as Chinese, Wu said.
Those who identify as both comprised 43 percent, the poll showed.
Less than 30 percent of KMT supporters backed the protests, which garnered higher support from pan-green camp supporters, the poll found.
The support rate was 100 percent among Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP) supporters, followed by NPP supporters at 92 percent and DPP supporters at 89 percent.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents who identified themselves as TPP supporters backed the protests, while the support rate was 62 percent among those who said they did not have any political affiliation.
The poll showed that Taiwanese support a free Hong Kong, as a majority of people agree with the mindset of “backing Hong Kong is supporting Taiwan,” Wu said.
China’s actions are making Taiwanese identify more with the mindset, Wu said, adding that Chinese aggression has further soured the already unpopular “one country, two systems” framework for Taiwan.
The poll could serve as a reference as the government builds its policies, he said.
The poll collected 1,234 samples via telephone interviews from April 21 to Thursday last week and has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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
RSS