More than 60 percent of Taiwanese support official contact between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, citing the results of a poll it commissioned.
In the telephone survey conducted from Oct. 11 to Oct. 13, 67.6 percent of respondents gave a thumbs-up to direct official contact across the Strait, the council said.
More than two-thirds (72.7 percent) felt that a mechanism enabling regular direct communication and interaction between the council and the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) under China’s State Council, would boost cross-strait rapprochement and relations.
An almost identical proportion, 72.6 percent, approved of former vice president Vincent Siew’s (蕭萬長) performance at the recent APEC leaders’ forum, saying it had contributed to Taiwan’s bid to join regional economic integration and increase participation in international activities.
The poll also found that 62.8 percent of respondents were pleased to see the council and the TAO arrange for Siew to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping(習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bali, Indonesia, earlier this month.
In addition, more than half of respondents (56.5 percent) described Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) and TAO Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) addressing each other by their official titles at the APEC forum as marking a new milestone in cross-strait engagement.
While 60.7 percent of respondents supported a proposal that Wang visit China, 68.3 percent backed the suggestion that Zhang visit Taiwan.
About two-thirds (67.8 percent) said regular meetings between them would be conducive to the development of cross-strait relations.
Cross-strait communication is presently handled by the Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits.
The poll, conducted by Taiwan Real Survey Co, collected 1,091 valid samples, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.97 percent and a confidence level of 95 percent.
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