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RDEC releases political, ethnic survey results

A year after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) returned to power, a new survey found that the number of people identifying themselves exclusively as either Taiwanese or Chinese has fallen slightly, while people calling themselves both Taiwanese and Chinese rose by 3 percent.

The Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) yesterday published its latest survey on political and ethnic views.

The survey showed that 64.6 percent of respondents identified themselves as Taiwanese, 11.5 percent considered themselves Chinese, while 18.1 percent called themselves both Taiwanese and Chinese.

The same survey in April last year showed that 67.1 percent identified themselves as Taiwanese, 13.6 percent considered themselves Chinese, and 15.2 percent called themselves both Taiwanese and Chinese.

On the KMT government’s performance, 49.3 percent of respondents were dissatisfied, while the approval rate stood at 34.9 percent.

For the Democratic Progressive Party, however, 67.3 percent of respondents expressed disillusionment, while 16.7 percent were satisfied with the party’s performance.

On ethnic issues, 52.9 percent of respondents said that Taiwan does not have serious ethnic problems, a decline from 56.7 percent in last year’s survey, while 33.7 percent of respondents said ethnic disputes were a serious problem, about the same level as last year’s 33.2 percent.

The survey indicated that 58.9 percent of respondents attributed ethnic discord to manipulation by politicians for the sake of party interests, down from 67.6 percent, while 15.3 percent said that the issue has historical origins, down from 16.4 percent a year ago.

The poll found people were divided over whether the country will experience more serious ethnic problems — with 30.4 percent saying it would, 47.7 percent saying it would not and 4.9 percent saying things would stay the same.

The survey indicated that the ethnic background of candidates may not be a deciding factor in elections.

The survey showed that 14.4 percent of the respondents said they would consider voting or not voting for a specific candidate because of his or her ethnicity, down from 18.7 percent in last year’s survey, while 79.1 percent of respondents said that ethnicity was not a driving factor in who they voted for, up from 78.8 percent a year ago.
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