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.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’