Nearly 63 percent of Taiwanese are not worried that the Taiwan-US relationship might deteriorate under the administration of US President Donald Trump, a poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed.
The survey, released a day after the inauguration of Trump, showed that 62.8 percent of Taiwanese were not worried about Taipei-Washington ties under the new president, while 32.1 percent said they were, foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) said, adding that 3.3 percent did not have an opinion and 1.8 percent said they did not know.
Asked whether they are worried about Trump triggering a decline in the bilateral relationship, 39.2 percent of respondents reported having almost no concerns, 23.6 percent said they had no concerns and 22.2 percent reported being somewhat concerned, while 9.9 percent said they were highly concerned, with the rest saying they had no opinion or did not know, the survey showed.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
The poll showed that Taiwanese overwhelmingly believe the relationship between Taiwan and the US is as “rock solid” as US officials claim, You said.
A 2021 foundation poll that asked similar questions about then-US president Joe Biden showed nearly the same results, he said.
However, compared with four years ago, the number of people reporting concerns about relations increased 3.8 percentage points, while those who did not fell 1.8 percentage points, he said.
The survey showed that 25 percent of Democratic Progressive Party supporters were worried about US ties, while 71 percent reported having no concerns.
Forty-nine percent of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supporters said they were concerned about the matter, while 47 percent reported having no concern, and 38 percent of Taiwan People’s Party supporters said they were worried, while 62 percent who said they were not.
Twenty-nine percent of independent voters reported having concerns about Trump’s handling of the bilateral relationship, while 63 percent said they did not.
Young people in their early 20s were the most likely to be worried about how the Trump administration would affect Taiwan, with 44 percent saying they were concerned, the survey showed.
That was higher than every age group except those aged 65 and older, with the share of people who said they were worried lower than 35 percent in other demographics, it showed.
The survey of Taiwanese aged 20 and older was conducted over landline telephones and cellphones from Jan. 12 to Tuesday last week, with 1,081 valid samples. It had margin of error of 2.98 percentage points, the foundation said.
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