A survey released yesterday found 52.7 percent of respondents said that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) failed to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore on Saturday last week.
The poll, conducted by Taiwan Indicator Survey Research, also found that 56.2 percent of respondents said that Ma’s statement in the meeting does not represent their views, with only 22.2 percent saying that Ma represented their views.
The poll showed that almost half of the respondents — 49.6 percent — agreed that the Ma-Xi meeting benefited China, while only 20 percent said they believed the meeting benefited Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
Only 28.6 percent of the poll’s respondents agreed with the statement that “both sides across the Strait belong to one China,” which Xi declared in the meeting’s closed-door discussion session, while 58.4 percent disagreed, the poll showed.
Although Ma repeatedly emphasized that he had “said all that should be said” in the meeting and that he had not only addressed the “one China, with each side having its own interpretation” (一中各表) formula, but had also reiterated the Republic of China’s sovereignty, only 30.2 percent believe that Ma had defended national sovereignty and dignity, the poll said.
The poll also showed that 42 percent of respondents said that Ma is “pro-unification,” the highest percentage on record since July 2011.
However, the poll also showed that 73 percent of respondents support regular meetings between Taiwan and China’s leaders, while only 14.5 percent said they oppose such meetings.
Meanwhile, the poll found Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) continued to pull further ahead of her opponents with 46.2 percent support.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) has 20.4 percent support, while People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) trailed at 10.4 percent, the poll said.
The survey collected 1,004 valid samples from Sunday through Tuesday and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
RSS