A recent survey conducted by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) showed that 45.21 percent of respondents have not been reassured by a proposed investment protection pact with China.
Only 34.41 percent said they would be reassured by such a pact, the survey found.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said Taiwanese have no confidence in the effect of the pact that the government is seeking to sign with China.
More than half of the respondents agreed with the question, “Do you think, like thousands of Taiwanese investors whose petitions with China have met deaf ears, that Taiwan’s government is too weak?” Huang said.
He said 50.68 percent of the respondents said they “agree very much” to that statement, 18.69 percent said they “agree,” 18.21 percent did not agree and 4.01 percent disagreed strongly. Another 8.41 percent had no opinion.
When asked if President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration was competent enough to seek justice for those Taiwanese investors who claim they have been victimized by China’s judicial system, 52.05 percent of respondents said “no,” 26.52 percent said “yes” and 21.43 percent did not have a view.
“When even ordinary Taiwanese do not think an investment pact could protect Taiwanese investors, how can investors be confident of such a pact?” Huang said.
The poll was conducted from Sept. 9 to Tuesday, and collected 1,022 valid samples nationwide. The survey had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, the TSU said.
Responding to the survey results, the Mainland Affairs Council said it was certain the public would become more confident about the investment protection deal once they are more familiar with it.
“Too many times, too many Taiwanese investors have asked us to reduce their business risks in mainland China,” Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said.
“This is why the government decided to sign the agreement in the first place. We expect Taiwanese will recognize its benefits in the long run,” he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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