Most Taiwanese do not subscribe to the “one China” policy, or the idea that Taiwan is part of China, a survey conducted by the Taiwan Cross-Strait Policy Association showed.
According to the survey, 59.7 percent of respondents said that president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) “should not state in her inauguration speech that both sides [of the Taiwan Strait] belong to ‘one China,’ while 22 percent said she should,” association secretary-general Anson Hung (洪耀南) told a news conference in Taipei.
“Asked if they think Tsai should give in if China openly threatens to reduce the number of Chinese tourists to Taiwan, 60.4 percent said they still believed that she should not say Taiwan and China are parts of ‘one China,’ while 24.7 percent said she should,” Hung said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Asked if Tsai should give in to the threat that China would suppress Taiwan’s international space, 60 percent of respondents said she should not; 57.2 percent also said she should not give in to Beijing’s threat of cutting cross-strait economic exchanges.
“The results of the survey show that, no matter how China pressures or threatens Taiwan, the majority of the public still do not agree with the idea that Taiwan and China belong to ‘one China,’” Hung said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) told the news conference that the results of the association’s survey are similar to those of other polls conducted by other organizations as well as the Mainland Affairs Council, and urged Beijing to review those results as well.
“Leaders of a democracy should act according to the will of the majority, and the poll shows that Beijing’s idea of ‘one China’ is unacceptable to most people in Taiwan, and it would be difficult for Tsai to go against the majority,” Lo said.
“Cross-strait relations can progress more smoothly if it remains ambiguous to a certain extent, so Beijing should not be so eager to break that ambiguity,” Lo said.
Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正), an associate professor at National Quemoy University’s Department of International and Mainland China Affairs, said that China often calls on Taiwan to respect the opinion of its 1.3 billion people, but “what qualification does the Chinese leadership have to make that call when it does not even respect the opinions of its people and restricts the freedom of speech?”
As Tsai insists that the core of her cross-strait policy is maintaining the “status quo” and refuses to recognize the so-called “1992 consensus,” Beijing has stepped up its calls for Tsai to abide by the “consensus,” while threatening that refusal to do so may lead to serious consequences in cross-strait exchanges.
Although Beijing did not confirm it, there have been rumors that a sharp decline in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan following Tsai’s election is a result of China’s protest over her cross-strait stance.
The poll, conducted from Monday to Wednesday, collected 1,072 valid samples. It has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
EIGHT-YEAR WINDOW: Avril Haines said that Beijing is closely watching the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although Moscow’s actions have not sped up Beijing’s timeline The threat posed by China to Taiwan until 2030 is “critical,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Tuesday while testifying on worldwide threats at a hearing of the US Senate Committee on Armed Services. “I think it’s fair to say that it’s critical, or acute,” Haines said when asked by US Senator Josh Hawley if she viewed the threat facing Taiwan to be acute from now until 2030. “It’s our view that they [China] are working hard to effectively put themselves into a position in which their military is capable of taking Taiwan over our intervention,” she said, without
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
‘DAMOCLES SWORD’: An Italian missionary said the arrest of cardinal Zen is a blow for the church in Hong Kong, China and the world, signaling great danger ahead China yesterday defended the arrest of a 90-year-old Catholic cardinal under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, a move that triggered international outrage and deepened concerns over Beijing’s crackdown on freedoms in the territory. Retired cardinal Joseph Zen (陳日君), one of the most senior Catholic clerics in Asia, was among a group of veteran democracy advocates arrested on Wednesday for “colluding with foreign forces.” Pop singer Denise Ho (何韻詩), veteran barrister Margaret Ng (吳靄儀) and cultural studies academic Hui Po-keung (許寶強) were also arrested, the latter as he attempted to fly to Europe to take up an academic post. Cyd Ho (何秀蘭), a democracy