More than 60 percent of respondents backed the President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration’s support for protesters seeking democracy and freedom in Hong Kong, a survey commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) showed on Thursday.
The survey, conducted from Thursday last week to Monday, showed that 64.7 percent supported the government standing with Hong Kongers calling for freedom, the rule of law and human rights at rallies in the Chinese territory.
It showed that 22.6 percent did not agree with the government’s position, while 12.6 percent expressed no opinion.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
Hong Kongers protested in huge numbers on June 9 to oppose an extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong authorities to extradite criminal suspects to Taiwan, Macau and China.
The rally, which organizers said was attended by more than 1 million people, has widened into a movement calling for democracy and the resignation of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥).
Tsai and high-ranking administration officials have issued statements in support of Hong Kongers’ aspirations for democracy.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) also denounced the Hong Kong government’s handling of the rallies.
The survey found that 88.7 percent of respondents rejected the “one country, two systems” framework proposed by Beijing as a model for cross-strait relations, an increase of more than 10 percentage points from 79 percent in a similar survey in March.
“The Republic of China is a sovereign state. The one country, two systems framework is filled with lies and illusions,” MAC Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said, adding that Beijing’s political maneuvers are anti-democratic and are undermining cross-strait peace.
The survey showed that 87.3 percent preferred the “status quo” regarding cross-strait relations, while 1.7 percent favored immediate unification and 4.8 percent preferred a declaration of independence as soon as possible. About 6.1 percent had no comment on the issue.
Sixty-five point five percent said that Beijing was unfriendly toward the government, while 51.4 percent said it was unfriendly toward Taiwanese, up from 60.9 percent and 45.6 percent respectively in March.
The survey was conducted by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center and commissioned by the council.
It had an effective sample size of 1,095 Taiwanese aged at least 20, and had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.96 percentage points.
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