Although a majority said it was necessary for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to sign financial memorandums of understanding (MOUs), more people were in favor of imposing stricter regulations on Chinese banks than on foreign counterparts, a poll released yesterday by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) revealed.
The poll found that 52.1 percent of respondents said it was necessary for Taipei and Beijing to sign MOUs, while 29.5 percent said they were unnecessary.
However, when asked a similar question on whether they were personally in favor of signing MOUs with Beijing, only 46.3 percent said yes, 29.6 percent said no and 24.1 percent said they did not know or gave no opinion.
Once both sides’ financial markets are open to each other, 69.5 percent of the respondents said stricter regulations should be imposed on Chinese banks than on foreign banks. Only 17.9 percent said they should not.
Taipei and Beijing agreed in June to sign three financial MOUs on banking, insurance, and securities and futures.
MAC Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) told the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee on Oct. 12 that the three financial MOUs would not be signed in a third country as speculated and that the council would conduct a poll on the three MOUs within a week.
Lai also promised that the administration would obtain the support of the people before pushing the MOUs and let the legislature fully supervise the process. As for when the three MOUs will be signed, Lai told the committee that the council had authorized the Financial Supervisory Commission to handle the matter.
The national poll of 1,084 adults was conducted by the TVBS Poll Center on Friday and Sunday.
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