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Nearly two-thirds object to allowing Chinese say on Taiwan’s future: poll
By Chen Yan-Ting and Sean Lin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
More than 64 percent of Taiwanese oppose a recent statement made by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) that the nation’s future should be decided by “all Chinese people,” a poll released by Taiwan Thinktank showed yesterday.
The poll also showed that 73.8 percent of respondents regard relations between Taiwan and China as “state-to-state,” among which nearly 70 percent of respondents who regarded themselves as pro-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said they think that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are independent nations.
In addition, 57 percent of survey takers said they cannot accept the “one country, two systems” policy that Beijing espouses for Taiwan’s future, the poll showed.
The think tank conducted the poll on Wednesday and Thursday, the first two days of TAO Minister Zhang Zhijun’s (張志軍) four-day visit in Taiwan.
The survey also polled public opinion on Premier Jiang Yi-huah’s (江宜樺) performance, the proposed cross-strait service trade agreement and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trustworthiness in his political dealings with China.
The poll indicated that the number of people who view the trade pact as harmful to Taiwan’s overall interests and those who deem it beneficial were roughly equal at 37.4 percent and 39.1 percent respectively.
However, as many as 74.4 percent of respondents said they did not believe the trade agreement would benefit them personally, while 62.9 percent said that it would only benefit certain groups.
When asked whether they trust Ma as Taiwan’s economic facilitator with China, 58.7 percent expressed distrust and only 33 percent said they have faith in the president.
In stark contrast, the poll showed that almost 56 percent of respondents said they believe Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would safeguard the interests of Taiwanese.
As to the approval ratings for the KMT as the governing party, 66.8 percent expressed discontent, while those who said they approve of its performance only accounted for 21.7 percent.
The poll showed that Ma’s detractors tend to converge in 30 to 49 age group, which accounted for more than 70 percent.
Notably, up to 40 percent of KMT supporters also expressed dissatisfaction with the results of Ma’s administration, which may indicate that the party is losing supporters, said Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒), a professor at National Dong Hwa University.
Taiwan Thinktank, which is generally perceived as more sympathetic to the pan-green camp, conducted the poll by telephone and collected 1,094 valid responses through a random sampling of Taiwanese nationals aged 20 and above.
source: Taipei Times
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