Public reaction to President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) handling of national defense issues and cross-strait relations is divided, as the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) steps up its military activities in the Taiwan Strait, a survey by the Cross-Strait Policy Association showed yesterday.
The survey, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, came on the heels of a series of exercises staged by the PLA around Taiwan this month, including a live-fire drill on Wednesday last week about 20km from the coast of Quanzhou Bay in China’s Fujian Province.
In what was perceived as a counteraction, Tsai for the first time since assuming office in May 2016 boarded a warship — the Kidd-class destroyer Keelung — on April 13 to observe a joint anti-surface sea and air exercise by the military in waters off Taiwan’s east coast.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Although the majority, or 56 percent, of respondents supported Tsai’s warship move, those who approved and disapproved of her performance on the national defense front were close at 47.1 percent and 45.4 percent respectively, the poll showed.
However, respondents were on the same page when it came to Beijing’s actions.
Eighty percent said that China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Liu Jieyi’s (劉結一) remarks that the Fujian drill was designed to defend “the integrity of the motherland’s sovereignty and territory” were not conducive to cross-strait relations, against 10.7 percent who thought otherwise.
Asked about their opinion of the Fujian drill, 48 percent regarded it as an attempt by China to intimidate Taiwan, while 36.7 percent dismissed it as merely a routine exercise, the survey showed.
With regard to the president’s handling of cross-strait issues, 49.5 percent of respondents supported Tsai’s stance and policies, but 44.7 percent said they did not.
Tsai’s performance on foreign affairs also failed to garner majority support, with only 49.5 percent expressing satisfaction, while 46 percent said they were not satisfied.
Furthermore, 45.9 percent said that overseas state visits, with Tsai having made four since taking office, would not help the nation consolidate ties with its diplomatic allies, but 51.4 percent disagreed, the poll found.
A cross-analysis of the poll suggested that public perception of the government’s performance largely ran along party lines, association secretary-general Wang Chih-sheng (王智盛) said, adding that respondents who disapproved of Tsai’s handling of state affairs were mostly pan-blue supporters.
Public dissatisfaction with Tsai’s dealings with China’s military drills could be due to Beijing labeling them as part of its anti-independence efforts, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Tung Li-wen (董立文) said.
“The PLA staged similar drills during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration. The only difference is that China did not go around and play them up,” Tung said, adding that the PLA started sending its aircraft carrier Liaoning to the Taiwan Strait and aircraft to encircle Taiwan in 2013 and 2015 respectively.
Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor at National Chung Cheng University’s Institute of Strategic and International Affairs, said it is dangerous for partisanship to color people’s perception of national defense matters.
“The PLA will always be there regardless of which party is in power in Taiwan,” Lin said.
The poll collected 1,070 valid samples, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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