A recent survey showed that high-school and college students lack global vision in international matters, the non-profit King Car Education Foundation said on Tuesday.
The survey was conducted early last month among high-school and college students nationwide and found that only 29 percent of respondents knew the exact number of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies. A total of 71 percent of those polled did not know that Taiwan had 23 formal allies, the foundation said at the press conference to unveil the survey’s results.
Asked about the most challenging aspect of citizen diplomacy, 50 percent of respondents said they lacked proficiency in foreign languages.
Meanwhile, 54 percent of respondents said involvement in international events would help the country’s attempt to join international organizations, while 49.6 percent said economic exchanges and trade would help.
The polled students also identified Japan (56 percent), the US (39.7 percent) and allies in Africa (35.7 percent) as the friendliest countries to Taiwan.
For the students, the unfriendliest countries toward Taiwan were China (88 percent), South Korea (47.3 percent) and the US (28.1 percent).
The survey showed that although some students faced challenges such as learning foreign languages and developing a better understanding of global affairs, some were already aware that a global vision could help improve individual competitiveness, the foundation said.
It added that although cross-strait exchanges have increased dramatically, a majority of students still saw China as the least friendly nation.
The foundation said that people in Taiwan needed a better understanding of and more dialogue with their Chinese counterparts, who are expected to be both partners and rivals in the future.
The survey collected 1,425 valid samples with a 97 percent confidence level and a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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