More than 60 percent of respondents disagreed with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) comment that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to ‘one China,’” a poll released yesterday by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research showed, while only 26.7 percent agreed with the statement.
Chu made the comments during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Bejiing on May 4. Chu later said that the “one China” he spoke of referred to the Republic of China (ROC), not the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Asked whether Taiwan and China belong to “one China,” 61.6 percent of respondents opposed the idea, 26.7 percent were in favor and 11.7 percent said they had no opinion on the matter or were neutral, the poll showed.
Image provided by TISR
The survey showed that 41.2 percent of respondents said that the talks in Beijing were more favorable to China, while 15.7 percent said they favored Taiwan.
The poll asked: “In the event of Taiwan and China mutually recognizing each other as rightful governments, should both sides enter into an alliance as two nations or merge and become a single country?”
Among respondents, 56.2 percent opposed an alliance, while 24.7 percent supported the idea and 19.1 percent said they had no opinion on the matter.
An analysis of the poll results showed that among pan-blue supporters, 47.5 percent opposed an alliance, while 42.7 percent supported the notion.
When asked who among Chu, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) — seen as potential KMT nominees for next year’s presidential election — would best preserve Taiwanese sovereignty, prioritize Taiwan’s safety and maintain cross-strait relations, Wang was ranked No. 1 by 36.9 percent of respondents, Chu was backed by 26.5 percent and Wu by 4.9 percent, while 12.8 percent said that none of the three would meet their expectations, 1.3 percent said all three were up to the task and 17.6 percent did not respond or said they did not know.
The survey was conducted on Monday and Tuesday.
It collected 1,004 valid samples from people aged 20 or above. It has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian