Nearly 70 percent of Taiwanese identify with the sovereign concept “one country on each side” (一邊一國), a poll conducted by National Taiwan University (NTU) Department of Political Science research team head Chang Yu-tzung (張佑宗) has found.
Chang said that overall the poll showed about 70 percent of respondents identified with the statement that Taiwan and China are politically two separate countries, while only 20 percent supported the view that the Republic of China (ROC) holds sovereign claims to both Taiwan and China.
Five percent of people polled hold the opinion that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has sovereignty over China and Taiwan, and the remaining 5 percent did not know or were indifferent, Chang said.
The poll was based in social psychology theory, dividing interviewed participants — about 1,000 people — into four even groups of 250, Chang said.
The groups were further divided, with some given positive stimuli on issues of economic, political and technological development in China and contrasting groups — separated on the basis of gender, age, degree of education and stance on pro-unification and pro-independence — given no stimuli, Chang said.
The poll examined how three aspects — economic, political and technological development — influenced the way people formed national identification.
The factor of strong economic development in China was shown to have the greatest influence on sympathetic attitudes toward China — especially in the middle-aged group — whereas the younger generation saw it as a threat and was more emotionally tied to Taiwan, Chang said.
Political development in China had the greatest effect on pan-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) support, while technological development was the greatest factor influencing the younger generation, Chang said.
The majority, over 70 percent of those polled, stood by the “one country on each side” concept, Chang said.
Only 20 percent to 30 percent of those polled were swayed by the stimuli provided, showing that this only affected peoples’ opinion on the extent of sovereign territorial claims of the ROC and PRC.
It could be said that the majority of Taiwanese see the cross-strait service agreement as an agreement signed between two sovereign countries, Chang added.
Conversely, the aspect of cultural and economic integration with China held less weight with Taiwanese than issues focused on sovereignty and the extent of territorial claim, Chang said.
From this poll and others, it would seem that the majority of Taiwanese are trending towards a set concept of “one country on each side,” Chang said.
The poll was conducted in the early half of last year, with the results coming in by the end of last year, Chang said, adding that the unit commissioning the poll had not made the poll public due to certain concerns, on which Chang did not elaborate.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods