An overwhelming majority of Taiwanese reject eventual unification with China, the results of a poll released yesterday by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research showed, with 66.4 percent opposed to it and only 18.5 percent in favor, while 15.1 percent remained noncommittal.
The poll also found that 50.4 percent of pan-blue respondents said they oppose unification, and that opposition to unification increases with youth, with 81 percent of those in the 20 to 29 age group saying that they oppose it.
The poll found 52.6 percent of respondents agreed that eventual independence should be Taiwan’s goal, with 30.9 opposed and 16.5 percent remaining noncommittal.
A cross-analysis of the poll showed that 74.7 percent of pan-green supporters and 30.6 percent of pan-blue supporters backed eventual independence, with 58.7 percent of pan-blues saying they are opposed to it.
Youth is correlated with approval for national independence, with about 72 percent of those in the 20 to 29 age group supporting independence, the cross-analysis found.
When compared with historical polling data, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) electoral victory in the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections — unprecedented in its 30-year history — were found to have no significant impact on public attitudes about independence or unification, according to the cross-analysis.
“This suggested that public opinion on the issue is firmly established and not easily swayed by single-issue concerns,” the pollsters said.
The poll found 64.1 percent of respondents said that if Beijing announced a timetable for unification, they would support the government holding a national referendum to decide whether to accept or reject unification, with 24.3 percent opposed and 11.7 percent remaining noncommittal.
The poll found that responses across different political camps to the hypothetical scenario are broadly similar to the general trend, suggesting a nonpartisan consensus with regard to the issue.
The latest survey and historical polling data suggests Beijing risks precipitating a referendum in Taiwan if it announces a unification timetable as a pressure tactic, the pollsters said.
The poll found 57.1 percent of respondents approved of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inaugural address acknowledging a cross-strait negotiation in 1992, as well as her omission of any acknowledgement of the so-called “1992 consensus” or “one China” principle, with 22.2 percent disapproving and 20.6 percent remaining noncommittal.
Tsai’s remarks had an approval rating of 83 percent and a disapproval rating of 7 percent with pan-greens, 30.1 percent approval and 56.1 percent disapproval with pan-blues, and 41.5 percent approval and 20.4 percent disapproval with neutrals, the poll found.
In addition, as a response to Chinese diplomatic pressure, the poll found that 51.4 percent of respondents said that they believe it is not necessary for the Tsai administration to accede to Beijing’s demands to recognize the “one China” principle, with 27.5 percent saying that it should accede and 21 percent remaining noncommittal.
Cross-analysis suggested that in general, youth and high education is correlated with disbelief in the necessity for the Tsai administration to accede to Beijing’s demands, the pollsters said.
The poll was conducted on Thursday and Friday, and collected 1,007 valid samples from across the nation, with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
INCURSION: After 13 PLA aircraft flew into Taiwan’s ADIZ, the US Department of State said that China should rather ‘engage in meaningful dialogue’ with Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration on Saturday urged China to stop placing military pressure on Taiwan, while calling on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in peaceful dialogue. The statement by the US Department of State was issued after 13 Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. The air force scrambled fighter jets to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing air defense assets until the planes left the ADIZ. The US “notes
‘INCREASED VIGILANCE’: A source of infection has not yet been found for the latest two cases in a hospital cluster, which should serve as a warning, Chen Shih-chung said A total of 2,991 people associated with a COVID-19 cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital have been put under home isolation, after an emergency expanded isolation order was issued on Sunday evening, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Fifteen people have so far tested positive in the cluster infection. The first case in the cluster (case No. 838) was reported on Jan. 12 — a doctor who treated an infected patient who had returned from the US. Contact tracing for the first 13 cases found connections to case No. 838, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who
FAMILY UNIT: The CECC warned that the eldest sister of the latest case, who also has COVID-19, visited Taoyuan’s Chungping evening market on Tuesday and Wednesday The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a domestic case of COVID-19, associated with a recent cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital, and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the latest case (No. 885) is a woman in her 50s, who is the third daughter of case No. 881, a man in his 90s. The woman is the main caregiver of her elderly father, who had been hospitalized earlier this month and was treated by a nurse (case No. 852) from Monday to Thursday last week, he said, adding that
DUBIOUS HONOR? A man in his 90s, who tested positive yesterday and is part of the Taoyuan hospital cluster, is the oldest person in Taiwan to have contracted COVID-19 Taiwan yesterday recorded six new imported cases of COVID-19 and two new domestic cases, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said, adding that the local infections are linked to the cluster at Taoyuan General Hospital, which now totals 12 cases. One of the domestic cases is a man in his 90s, who was treated earlier this month at Taoyuan General Hospital and tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday last week, four days before he was discharged, the center said in a statement. After one of the nurses on the ward was confirmed on Saturday last week to have contracted COVID-19, the