A little less than half the people in Taiwan believe the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) can ensure the development of peaceful relations between Taiwan and China without compromising the national interest, a survey said yesterday.
A survey by the Global Views Survey Research Center found that 49.8 percent of respondents believed the KMT could achieve this, while 26.4 percent said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could do a better job.
When the same question was asked in May, 45.3 percent said the KMT would perform better, against 29.9 percent for the DPP.
“The KMT’s ability in handling cross-strait issues was highly recognized by the public. Given the fact that the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement [ECFA] is scheduled to come into force next month, the public support it [the KMT] received in this particular aspect was almost twice as much as the DPP,” the survey center said in a statement.
The survey found that the public responded positively to DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) decision to incorporate the party’s official statements on cross-strait relations in its 10-year policy guidelines.
Asked if they thought the DPP supported increasing cross-strait exchanges, 35.8 percent said yes, up 7 percentage points from May. Those who responded in the negative accounted for 39.6 percent, down 9.4 percentage points from May.
Moreover, 54.5 percent said it would benefit Taiwan if the DPP interacted more regularly with China, up 1.5 percentage points. Those who said it would not benefit the nation at all accounted for 24.4 percent, down 4.7 percentage points.
Asked if the DPP should adjust its policies toward China, 53.7 percent said its China policy should be more open, down 4.6 percentage points. By contrast, 13.6 percent said there was no need for the party to change its policy, a 4.4 percentage points increase from May.
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