Although the number of people in Taiwan who identify as Taiwanese has fallen since its peak of 75.15 percent in 2015, it has remained steady at 60 to 70 percent, the Ministry of Science and Technology yesterday told a news conference announcing the results of its Social Change Survey, which has been conducted for more than three decades.
In 1995, 32.13 percent of people in Taiwan identified as Taiwanese, Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology research fellow Lin Thung-hong (林宗弘) said.
It has since skyrocketed 43 percentage points and in 2015 topped 75 percent, he said.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
Although the theme of the survey varies from year to year, questions on important topics such as national identity are almost always included, he said.
The questionnaire asked participants whether they identified as “Taiwanese, “both Taiwanese and Chinese,” “both Chinese and Taiwanese” or “Chinese,” Lin said.
In 1992, when the question was first included, more than half of respondents said they have a dual national identity, but by 2015, the proportion had fallen to about 23 percent, he said.
For this year’s questionnaire, the researchers included questions about emerging technologies and the risks they pose, including views toward artificial intelligence, online information security, fake news and nuclear energy, he said.
The findings could also be applied to policymaking, researchers said.
For example, in 2017, 48.39 percent of men who earned less than NT$30,000 per month were unmarried — the highest ever, Lin said.
This year, the government raised the minimum monthly wage to NT$23,100, he said, adding that if employment conditions for young workers continue to improve, the marriage and fertility rates would rise.
The survey was begun by the ministry — which was then called the National Science Council — in 1984.
Topics have included family, education, social stratification, social mobility, political culture, communication, culture and value judgements, religion, interpersonal relations and social networks, institute research fellow and project leader Fu Yang-chih (傅仰止) said.
The survey has collected more than 125,000 responses over 34 years, researchers said.
It has been called one of the world’s largest surveys of its kind, its Web site said.
Taiwanese researchers have also participated in international collaborations to compare results from the survey with those from more than 30 other nations, Fu said.
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