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Poll claims high support for cross-strait mechanism

The majority of people were in favor of the negotiations between Taiwan and China’s semi-official agencies last week, the results of a survey by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) released yesterday showed.

The poll, conducted between Wednesday and Saturday, found that 68 percent of respondents the negotiations between the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) helped resolve problems occurring during cross-strait exchanges.

More than 75 percent said they were in favor of continuing with such a negotiation model.

Close to 80 percent of respondents said they were happy with the four agreements signed last week by SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).

The four agreements signed were on cross-strait aviation routes, sea transportation links, postal services and a food safety mechanism.

While the agreement on food safety will take effect within seven days, the other three will be implemented after 40 days.

Although the Democratic Progressive Party and other opposition groups held large-scale demonstrations opposing the Chiang-Chen meeting, more than 60 percent of respondents said the four agreements would have a positive impact on the economy and about 67 percent said they did not think Chen’s visit had undermined the nation’s dignity.

Asked to state their preferences for the topics to be discussed during the next round of negotiations, respondents said: procedures for cross-strait exchanges (75 percent), investment cooperation (57 percent), industrial collaboration (51 percent), financial partnership (46 percent) and cultural, education and media exchanges (44 percent).

The survey polled 1,067 adults across the country.

Meanwhile, the council yesterday dismissed speculation that Beijing had suspended government officials at the ministerial level from visiting Taiwan after the demonstrations held during Chen’s visit.

MAC Deputy Chairman Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said he had not heard of such a decision and that he would have been notified if that were the case.
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