The latest telephone survey conducted by National Chengchi University from March 30 to April 2 and released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) shows that about 8 percent of respondents supported “maintaining the status quo and seeking unification at a later date” and 1.5 percent supported “unification at the earliest possible opportunity.”
In other words, less than 10 percent of respondents supported unification with China, suggesting that more than 90 percent of Taiwanese do not support unification.
The poll also found that nearly 30 percent of respondents said the “status quo” should be maintained in perpetuity, an increase on previous polls. In addition, 32.4 percent of respondents said that the “status quo” should be maintained with any decision on unification left to the future — the lowest level of support for that option since the poll was first commissioned by the council, suggesting that people have a clearer idea about relations with China.
The poll was conducted after former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh--hsiung (吳伯雄) visited Beijing and proposed the “one country, two areas (一國兩區)” concept during a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
The council occasionally conducts polls on the issues of unification and independence, which gives respondents a number of options to choose from: “maintaining the status quo and making a decision later,” -“maintaining the status quo in perpetuity,” “maintaining the status quo and declaring independence later,” “maintaining the status quo and seeking unification at a later date,” “declaring independence as soon as possible” and “seeking unification at the earliest possible opportunity.”
The poll is intended as a reference point on public opinion toward the issue of independence and unification.
In the latest poll, 32.4 percent of respondents supported “maintaining the status quo and making a decision later,” 29.9 percent chose “maintaining the status quo in perpetuity,” 15.7 percent believed that Taiwan should “maintain the -status quo and declare independence later,” 8.2 percent favored “maintaining the status quo and seeking unification at a later date” and 6.1 percent wanted to declare independence as soon as possible, while only 1.5 percent wanted to seek unification at the earliest possible opportunity.
As for the pace of cross-strait exchanges, the poll showed that 45 percent of Taiwanese think they are just right, while 32.6 percent think they are developing too quickly.
Compared with the previous poll in which 48.1 percent believed they were just right and 25.7 percent said they were too fast, the results of the latest poll suggested that Taiwanese are worrying more about the pace of cross-strait exchanges.
Although Beijing has granted economic favors to Taiwan since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in 2008, 49.7 percent of respondents said that the Chinese government has behaved in an unfriendly way toward the Taiwanese government, while 33 percent believe that Beijing has been friendly.
On the other hand, 45.7 percent of respondents said that the Chinese government was unfriendly to Taiwanese, while 38.5 percent said Beijing was friendly.
The survey had 1,079 samples with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.98 percentage points.
REACHING OUT: President Tsai expressed condolences to the deceased man’s family and wished a speedy recovery to those who were wounded in the shooting The Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) on Monday called on the US to label organizations associated with the suspect in the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church shooting as domestic terrorists, following accusations that he was a member of a group backing unification with ties to the Chinese government. David Wenwei Chou (周文偉), 68, was arrested on Sunday and is being held in lieu of US$1 million bail at the Orange County Intake Release Center over a mass shooting at the California church that left one dead and five wounded. Local police suspect the shooting was politically motivated after they found notes in
NO CONSENSUS YET: Local governments and the CECC have agreed to change the ‘3+4’ self-isolation policy, but are still mulling what to replace it with The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) and local governments have agreed to ease restrictions on close contacts of COVID-19 cases, although the details are still being discussed, the center said yesterday. The discussions follow Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Saturday approving a proposal to shorten the “3+4” policy — three days of home isolation followed by four days of self-disease prevention — for close contacts who have received booster doses. “We did not reach a consensus on how to revise the current restrictions, but we all agreed that the administrative burden must be reduced and the intensity of restrictions must be eased,
OPPOSING CHINESE ‘HOSTILITY’: The bill orders the state secretary to create a plan to regain observer status for Taiwan, saying Taipei is a model contributor to world health US President Joe Biden on Friday signed a bill into law to help Taiwan regain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA), demonstrating Washington’s support for Taiwan’s international participation. Friday was the deadline for Biden to sign the bill (S.812), which directs “the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to regain observer status for Taiwan in the World Health Organization (WHO), and for other purposes.” The 75th WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, is scheduled to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, from Sunday next week to May 28. The bill, introduced by US Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the US Senate
LIVING WITH COVID-19: Close contacts with a booster shot would no longer follow the ‘3+4’ policy, instead practicing ‘0+7,’ or self-disease prevention for seven days Close contacts of COVID-19 cases who have received a booster shot no longer need to isolate at home, but should practice seven days of “self-disease prevention,” effective today, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that starting at 12am today, close contacts — people living in the same household — of those confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 are exempt from home isolation if they have received a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. Data from other countries show that people who have received a booster shot are