About 79 percent of Taiwanese support President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) policy to lengthen conscription from four months to one year starting next year, a 21st Century Foundation poll released yesterday showed, finding an “alarming” discrepancy between the belief that others would defend the nation and reported willingness to actually do so.
Seventy-eight percent of Taiwanese who have children under 18 years of age who would be subject to the new military service term supported the extended conscription, while disapproval of the policy among the overall population stood at 16 percent, it showed.
The strongest supporters of the revised policy by age group were Taiwanese aged 30 to 39, at 83.3 percent, it said.
Photo: REUTERS
Meanwhile, Taiwanese aged 50 to 59 reported the weakest support for the measure, as 20.6 percent of that demographic disapproved of it.
About 70 percent of respondents believed that a majority of Taiwanese would fight if a war broke out between Taiwan and China, 25.2 percent of respondents believed Taiwanese would not fight and 4.3 percent of respondents had no opinion.
About 47.7 percent of people believed that China would invade Taiwan if it sees no other choice, 43.5 percent believed that it would not and 9.1 percent had no opinion.
Asked what they would do in a war, 30.7 percent of respondents said they would go with whatever happened, 11 percent said they would support the government’s policies and 21.6 percent said they would actively resist the invasion.
In addition, 17 percent of respondents said they would flee the country, and 4.9 percent said they would join the armed forces.
Although the survey showed that a majority of respondents believed that other Taiwanese would fight for the nation, it is alarming that less than 30 percent of the population expressed a willingness to actively resist China or join the armed forces, the foundation said.
A majority of respondents said they do not believe declaring neutrality would deter an invasion from China, that they do not believe the government has made sufficient preparations to defend the country and that the military is not ready to fight without help from allied forces, it said.
The poll was conducted via landline telephone interviews with 1,210 Taiwanese living in all 22 jurisdictions of the country, and was conducted from Jan. 1 to Jan. 4, the foundation said.
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