A vast majority of Taiwanese polled in a recent survey see themselves as “ethnically Chinese,” the Taiwan Competitiveness Forum said yesterday.
About 87 percent of the respondents said they think of themselves as part of the “ethnic Chinese community,” forum chief executive Hsieh Ming-hui (謝明輝) said, citing the results of the latest survey conducted by the think tank.
Meanwhile, the portion of Taiwanese who believe they are Chinese rose to 53 percent, the results show.
According to Hsieh, the results show that the impact of a massive movement against an agreement to open Taiwan’s service sector to Chinese investment in March and April has faded.
Speaking at a seminar in Taipei, Hsieh urged the government to seize on the growing amity toward China and continue its push to improve two-way ties, expressing hope for progress in a service trade agreement and a subsequent trade-in-goods agreement with China.
The survey also showed that more than half of those polled think that if the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) wants to produce cross-strait policies that appeal to the majority of Taiwanese, it will have to adjust its pro-independence stance.
Hsieh also said it is imperative for the DPP to garner support from those who believe they are ethnically Chinese to win the 2016 presidential election.
Taiwan Institute of Economic Research board member Chiu Yi (邱毅) dismissed the urgency for DPP policy change, saying that the party can win the presidential vote against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) without such a shift, as the KMT administration has been performing poorly.
Chiu said the DPP needs to face up to the “reality” of cross-strait relations should it be returned to power in two years’ time. He did not elaborate.
The survey on Taiwanese ethnic identity in the quarter ending last month was based on 1,078 valid samples collected from people over the age of 20.
It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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