Sixty-three percent of respondents had a positive outlook for Taiwan-US relations, regardless of who wins the US presidential election, an Association of Chinese Elite Leadership survey showed yesterday.
Asked how they thought bilateral relations would develop after the election, 52.8 percent of respondents said that the situation would be similar to before the election of US President Donald Trump in 2016, 10.2 percent said they thought the relationship would improve, 24.3 percent said it would worsen and 12.7 percent declined to answer, the association said.
Taiwan National Policy Research Association consultant Tung Li-wen (董立文) told a news conference in Taipei announcing the results that they showed most Taiwanese are optimistic about the future of the Taiwan-US relationship.
Photo: CNA
Asked about their views on post-election US-China relations, 47.1 percent said they thought that the relationship would improve, 33.5 percent said it would become “fair and unbiased, as it was prior to 2016,” 11.2 percent said it would worsen and 8.2 percent said they were unsure or declined to answer, the survey showed.
Asked about their views on Taiwan’s two main political parties, 42.6 percent agreed and 50.8 percent disagreed that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was “pro-China and anti-US,” while 67.9 percent agreed and 26.9 percent disagreed that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was “pro-US and anti-China.”
Asked which party’s stance aligned best with the opinions of Taiwanese, 51.2 percent said the DPP and 19.3 percent said the KMT, the survey showed.
Asked which party would best protect Taiwan’s national security, 45.2 percent said the DPP and 21.5 percent said the KMT, it showed.
The survey, conducted on Thursday and Friday, collected 1,077 valid samples and had a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
Separately, the Facebook account of the American Institute in Taiwan on Friday was inundated with messages such as “Biden is a joke,” and “the US Republican Party are the dogs of the evil Chinese Communist Party.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that the messages were an attempt to “drive a wedge between supporters of each party and destroy the US-Taiwan relationship.”
Additional reporting by Peng Wan-hsin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS