The percentage of people identifying themselves as “Taiwanese” has reached a record high, according to a poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation.
More than 80 percent of respondents self-identified as Taiwanese, compared with 8.1 percent who identified themselves as Chinese and 7.6 percent who identified as both in the poll, whose wording asked respondents if they viewed themselves as “Taiwanese,” “Chinese” or had “other thoughts.”
When asked to choose between eventual independence and unification with China, more than 51 percent said they favored independence, while 15 percent favored unification and 25 percent favored maintaining the “status quo.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“The results represent a historic peak for identification as Taiwanese and show that it has decisively replaced identification as Chinese as Taiwan’s mainstream ethnic identification,” foundation chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said, attributing respondents’ relatively high support for independence to the poll’s focus on an eventual future rather than the immediate choice used in many surveys.
Chao Chun-shan (趙春山), a prominent pan-blue academic and professor in the Institute of China Studies at Tamkang University, said the result demonstrated the continued failure of Chinese overtures to halt increasing support for independence.
“China’s strategic objective has not changed, but as Taiwan’s democracy has developed, [Beijing] has come to realize that it has to move from placing its hope in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to placing its hope in Taiwanese,” Chao said. “However, the results of eight years of cross-straits exchanges [under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)] have not exerted the influence necessary to prevent the mainland’s [China’s] fears from being realized as more Taiwanese have come to advocate independence, while fewer favor unification.”
While maintaining dialogue over education and culture, China will likely move to “differentiate” policies benefiting Taiwanese to target people with receptive attitudes, he said, adding that there are already moves to sanction businesspeople who favor independence.
The poll showed that 70 percent of respondents approved of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) government appointments and handling of major national affairs less than one week after taking office, with 56 percent favoring her Democratic Progress Party (DPP) compared with 21.5 percent favoring the KMT.
Tsai’s approval rating carried over to her inaugural address, with almost 70 percent of respondents approving her refusal to agree to Chinese demands to acknowledge the so-called “1992 consensus.”
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
While 80 percent said they did not want to see cross-straits relations regress, more than 52 percent said they would blame China — not Tsai — if it cuts off cross-straits negotiations in response to her refusal to acknowledge the “1992 consensus.”
While the DPP’s approval ratings represented a historic high, Tsai’s approval ratings were similar to those Ma had shortly after he took office in 2008 and likely reflected a “honeymoon period,” You said.
Shih Hsin University professor Peng Huai-en (彭懷恩) said that while there appeared to be some shift in the political landscape, the effect was clouded by a “social desirability” bias, which he said often creates a temporary spike in polling numbers for election winners.
“People like to add icing to the cake,” he said. “The KMT is not going to be knocked out any time soon.”
The survey interviewed 1,089 respondents using random digit dialing and had a margin of error of 2.97 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
RSS