• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Nearly 45% want to maintain status quo: poll

ROC Central News Agency

2007-12-26 22:30:59

    Taipei, Dec. 26 (CNA) Nearly 45 percent of the people polled hope to maintain the status quo for the present and decide Taiwan's future later, according to the result of a public opinion poll published by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Wednesday.

    This represents the highest figure since the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party took helm of the nation in 2000.

    The poll was conducted Dec. 21-23 by the market research company Berkeley BIGC at the MAC's commission. A total of 1,067 effective samples were collected with a margin of error of three percentage points.

    Asked about their views on unification with China, declaring Taiwan independence or maintaining the status quo, 44.9 percent said they hope to maintain the status quo and decide on the nation's future later, the highest point since 2000.

    One noteworthy finding is that only 11.8 percent of those polled said they hope to maintain the status quo until achieving independence, which is a dramatic decrease from 16.5 percent in August and represents the lowest point of the past four and a half years.

    MAC spokesman Liu Teh-hsun said that past public opinion polls conducted by the MAC have shown that voters tend to be more conservative on the eve of major elections and will not give definite views on the future of Taiwan. Taiwan's legislative elections are scheduled for Jan. 12 and presidential election March 22.

    Liu attributed the reason to the reality Taiwan faces in the international community as well as China's relentless obstruction, which discourages many of those polled from expressing their views.

    Taiwanese perceptions of China's animosity also reflect this point, as the survey shows that 66.8 percent of those polled think that Beijing is hostile to Taiwan's government, a new high in recent years.

    The number of those who think Beijing is not friendly to Taiwan's people rose to reach 50.6 percent, according to the poll.

    On restrictions imposed on Taiwan business people investing in China, those who believe the government should be stricter fell below 50 percent for the first time with only 44.3 percent saying that the government should be more stringent, the poll showed.

    Those who think that the government should ease restrictions rose to 37.7 percent for the first time, and those who think that the government should maintain the current policy also reached double-digit figures for the first time at 11.5 percent.

    Liu suggested that this has to do with a litany of regulations governing investment in China unveiled by the government in recent years, making the rules of the game more open and transparent.

(By Lilian Wu)