More than 70 percent of respondents in an opinion poll support the government’s efforts to maintain the cross-strait “status quo” based on the pursuit of peace and stability, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said.
MAC Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) announced the survey results at a news conference on Thursday, adding that 83.9 percent of respondents believed that maintaining positive bilateral exchanges was a shared responsibility between Taiwan and China, and that both should refrain from non-peaceful or intimidating words or deeds.
Of the respondents, 83 percent said that faced with the new situation, China should adopt a new mindset, demonstrate goodwill and flexibility to jointly maintain bilateral peace and stability.
The survey also showed that 71.8 percent of those polled thought China should seek cooperation with Taiwan, while 71.9 percent agreed with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that cross-strait relations could not be decided unilaterally and both nations needed to demonstrate goodwill to promote good relations.
On Taiwan’s exclusion from the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, 70.7 percent supported the government’s expression of strong dissatisfaction and protest, while 81.7 percent agreed that China’s obstruction is not conducive to good cross-strait relations.
The survey was commissioned by the MAC and conducted by Taiwan Real Survey Company between May 15 and 17.
A total of 1,071 valid samples were collected with a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
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