Most Taiwanese do not agree with China’s “one country, two systems” formula for unification and believe the nation’s future should be decided by its people, a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday showed.
In the survey, which was conducted by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center from Wednesday to Sunday last week, 79 percent of respondents rejected the “one country, two systems” concept, which would make Taiwan a special administrative region of China.
Only 10.4 percent of respondents accepted the formula, while 10.5 percent said they had no opinion.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
The government has already taken countermeasures against a five-point proposal announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Jan. 2, council spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said, adding that the results of the survey proved that Taiwanese oppose China’s propaganda and divisiveness.
Meanwhile, 83.9 percent of respondents rejected the use of force by China against Taiwan, while 87.7 percent said that Taiwan’s future and cross-strait relations should be decided by Taiwan’s 23 million people.
The survey also found that 83.9 percent support exchanges between Taiwan and China being undertaken on the basis of equality and mutual respect, without political preconditions and based on the law.
Eight out of 10 respondents said that the government should have better legislative and monitoring mechanisms before engaging in political negotiations or signing agreements with China.
Almost 90 percent of respondents said that the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait should be maintained.
The telephone survey collected data from 1,093 people aged 20 or above. It has a margin of error of 2.96 percentage points and a confidence level of 95 percent.
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS: China would not blockade Taiwan, because President Xi respects him, and Russia would not have invaded if he were president, he said Former US president and the Republican candidate in next month’s presidential election Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on China if China were to “go into Taiwan,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you, at 150 percent to 200 percent,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview with the WSJ published on Friday. Asked if he would use military force against a blockade on Taiwan by China, Trump said it would not come to that because Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) respected
HACKERS’ MARKET: Chat logs about Taiwan and documents outlining ways to take over online accounts were leaked from a company that sells data from hacks Taiwanese cybersecurity specialists found 577 leaked documents which show that the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in “cognitive warfare” against Taiwan through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, a documentary released last month by Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed. The filmmakers behind Tracking China’s Leaked Documents said they spent six months visiting seven countries, including Taiwan, where they interviewed members of TeamT5, a malware research and cybersecurity firm, which found the leaked documents. TeamT5 said they discovered a string of mysterious URLs on the social media platform X, which they suspected could be accounts created by hackers or people who leaked data, which led
The Taipei Department of Transportation discouraged YouBike 2.0E users from taking them on long-distance trips after a Taipei city councilor said that riders often use the new electric bike, YouBike 2.0E, to climb Yangmingshan (陽明山). Taipei earlier this year began offering the first 30 minutes of YouBike 2.0 rentals for free, with Taipei and New Taipei offering the YouBike 2.0E on Aug. 30 to encourage rider usage. For YouBike 2.0, the rate is NT$10 per 30 minutes within the first four hours, NT$20 per 30 minutes for five to eight hours and NT$40 per 30 minutes after eight hours. Meanwhile, for e-bikes,
RESOURCE RICH: Taiwan is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and has up to 30 gigawatts of the potential energy, of which 10 gigawatts could be economically viable Academia Sinica and CPC Corp yesterday began drilling the nation’s first deep geothermal well in Yilan County’s Yuanshan Township (員山). The 4km-deep well is expected to take 18 months to complete and has an estimated investment of NT$337 million (US$10.54 million), Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) said. “While Taiwan has up to 30 gigawatts of potential deep geothermal energy, with an estimated 10 gigawatts being economically viable, only by digging wells can we determine the actual amount of commercially viable geothermal energy,” Liao said at the project’s opening ceremony. Data collected during and after the excavation process would be used for future