The DPP must collect more than 800,000 signatures to allow the referendum to take place, under the Referendum Law (公投法).
While the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has suggested its own referendum on "rejoining" the UN using the country's official name -- "Republic of China" -- Chen urged the public to vote in favor of the DPP's referendum proposal.
"The United States is watching and so is the world," he said while visiting a temple in Taoyuan County yesterday morning. "It will help expedite Taiwan's UN campaign if the DPP's referendum passes."
Thirty-nine percent of respondents viewed Taiwan as a moderately developed country, while 18 percent considered it highly developed. Nearly one-third were not sure.
The questions about UN membership exposed some interesting differences of opinion among Americans, as interpolated from the survey.
On the basic question of whether the UN should offer Taiwan membership and the US should back Taiwan, liberals and conservatives disagreed.
"Perhaps seeing it as a matter of consistency in dealing with allies around the world, American progressives [were] very supportive of this stance [support for UN membership] for the US. However conservatives were not so sure. Among the very liberal, 77 percent said the US should go to bat for Taiwan membership, compared to just 52 percent of those who considered themselves very conservative," Zogby said.
Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling
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