More than 70 percent of Taiwanese fear that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies will lead the nation toward becoming a “second Hong Kong,” and just 10 percent view China in a favorable light, a survey released yesterday by the Taiwan Brain Trust found.
The think tank’s president, Wu Rong-i (吳榮義), said that more than 70 percent of respondents regard Taiwan as an independent country.
Wu added that the number reflected the highest percentage since the think tank started conducting such polls every three months in June last year.
The survey showed that 64.4 percent of respondents identify themselves as Taiwanese, while 3.5 percent think of themselves as Chinese, Wu said, adding that more than 70 percent of men under 40 identify themselves as Taiwanese.
The poll also found that 57.9 percent of respondents are concerned that if Ma were to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), cross-strait relations would lean more toward “unification,” while 72.1 percent were against Taiwan implementing the so-called “one country, two systems” policy, which has been applied to Hong Kong.
The survey showed Ma’s approval rating was at 11.3 percent.
Taiwan Brain Trust executive director Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠) said the latest survey results were the highest figures in recent polls that showed a shift in the public mindset on the matter of sovereignty.
Besides Taiwan, the US and China should also take these figures into consideration in cross-strait relations, Liu said.
Liu added that he expected Beijing to continue its infiltration attempts and efforts to sway Taiwanese view toward China in an attempt to block the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from returning to power.
Beijing would also continue to put pressure on DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) via Washington to force the party to change its China policy and step up its diplomatic oppression of Taiwan in international relations, he said.
The poll was conducted from Oct. 26 to Oct. 28 and collected 1,070 valid responses. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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