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Most people want to `wait-and-see' what China wants

While most citizens of Taiwan still do not buy Beijing's "one country, two systems" scheme for unification, the number of people who have taken a "wait and see" attitude toward the approach is increasing, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday.

The MAC found in its latest public opinion poll that nearly 70 percent of the Taiwan public are opposed to Beijing's "one country, two systems" scheme now, compared with 87.2 percent in 1999, when then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) categorically termed cross-strait ties as a "state to state relationship."

Compared with three years ago, the number of people opposed to the "one country, two systems" approach has declined nearly 17 percentage points.

This indicates that the number of people who have taken a "wait and see" attitude rather than pure opposition has increased, according to MAC Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tung (陳明通).

The poll results show that 71.9 percent of the people in Taiwan agree to opening direct cross-strait shipping links conditionally, while only 8.4 percent agree to such opening without any conditions -- figures about the same as those from a similar 1999 poll.

A total of 1,091 valid responses were obtained in the poll, which had a margin of error of 3 percent.
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