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Polls show citizens of two minds when it comes to China

Various polls over the past year suggest that the public has contradictory views over cross-strait affairs, academics said at a symposium yesterday.

"While many polls show that the majority of Taiwan's public acknowledges the relationship between China's and Taiwan's economies, the results also show that the majority do not wish to have direct transportation links with China due to national security considerations," said Chao Chien-min (趙建民), a political science professor at the Sun Yat-sen Graduate Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities at National Chengchi University.

Chao made the remarks at a symposium hosted by the Mainland Affairs Council. The purpose of the symposium was to analyze the public's thoughts on cross-strait affairs by looking at the results of numerous surveys conducted during the past year.

Citing an example that showed the public's contradictory attitude toward cross-strait affairs, Chao said that while the majority of those polled approved of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) comment that there is "one country on each side" of the Taiwan Strait, a high percentage of respondents said they favored the status quo when it comes to relations between China and Taiwan.

Pointing to another example, Andy Chang (張五岳), a China watcher at Tamkang University, said that while a relatively high percentage of citizens responded positively when asked if they think Taiwan's future should be decided by their own will through a referendum, support for the idea fell when people were asked if they wanted a referendum right away.

"Judging from such poll results, I guess you can say that Taiwan's public in general is quite pragmatic when it comes to cross-strait affairs," Chang said.

Chao said most polls showed that residents are cautious when it comes to opening up direct transport links with China.

"A consistent polling result of approximately 72 percent said that direct links, for the sake of national security, should only be implemented under certain conditions," Chao said.

"A majority of Taiwanese do not feel any urgency to open up direct transportation links with China. Many of these polls showed that only a small fraction of the general populace, mainly businesspeople, is fervent about having direct links opened now," Chao said.

Chang added that most polls also suggested that the older and less educated the respondents, the more likely they were to be concerned about the impact of direct transport links on national security.
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