Majority of Taiwanese think China is unfriendly: poll

ROC Central News Agency

2018/05/04 19:49:11

Taipei, May 4 (CNA) Nearly 80 percent of Taiwanese people think China is unfriendly toward Taiwan, following a setback for Taiwan in a diplomatic tug-of-war with the mainland, according to the results of a survey released Friday.

The poll results were released three days after the Dominican Republic switched its recognition from Taipei to Beijing, leaving Taiwan with only 19 diplomatic partners.

Some 79.5 percent of the respondents hold the view that China is unfriendly toward Taiwan, in sharp contrast to 10.3 percent who have the opposite stance, according to the results of the survey conducted by the Cross-Strait Policy Association (CSPA) from May 2-3.

At the same time, 64.4 percent of the respondents say that China's efforts to squeeze Taiwan in the international community will only push Taiwan further away from it.

In response to China's money diplomacy and its strategy of sending military aircraft and vessels to circle around Taiwan, 83.5 percent of the respondents contend that such means are not conducive to cross-strait ties and 63.7 percent say they have fueled tensions in the region.

Commenting on the changing situation between Taiwan and China, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Tung Li-wen (董立文) said that over the past 30 years, China has always resorted to political bullying and saber-rattling to intimate Taiwan, triggering resentment among Taiwan's people and pushing them away from China.

But he mentioned that it is worth noting that 30.5 percent of the people surveyed agree that Taiwan should accept the "1992 consensus" under Beijing's "one China principle," while 29 percent blame the Taiwan government for undermining ties between the two sides.

Echoing Tung's view, Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), a lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, voiced his concern that China's approach toward Taiwan has caused a split in Taiwan, given that 30 percent of the respondents would accept the "1992 consensus."

Despite the fact that a cross-analysis shows that 60 percent of them are supporters of the pan-blue camp led by the main opposition Kuomintang, it is clear that China has successfully further split Taiwan's polarized politics through foreign affairs issues, Lo said.

The telephone survey collected 1,075 valid samples from adults in the Taiwan area and had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.99 percentage points.

(By Chiu Po-sheng and Flor Wang)
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