More than 78 percent of Taiwanese are not afraid of China’s military drills around Taiwan and 81.6 percent are against Beijing’s “one China” principle, an opinion poll published by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation on Tuesday showed.
The Chinese military on Aug. 4 started week-long live-fire exercises, including launching ballistic missiles over Taiwan, and holding sea and air attack simulations around the nation. On Aug. 10, Beijing announced that it would hold “regular combat readiness patrols” in the Taiwan Strait. China said it sought to deter “Taiwan independence forces” and “separatist activities,” but the poll, conducted on Aug. 8 and 9, indicated that the plan backfired. Asked whether they are “afraid of China’s military drills around Taiwan” after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the nation, 78.3 percent of respondents said they were not afraid, while only 17.2 percent said they were. The survey also found that a large majority opposed Beijing’s “one China” principle, which stipulates that “there is only one China and the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government of China,” with Taiwan being part of it, while only 8.8 percent supported the policy.
A separate opinion poll commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and published on Thursday showed a similar trend. More than 80 percent of respondents said China is “unfriendly” to the Taiwanese government and 66.6 percent said it is unfriendly to Taiwanese, the survey conducted from Aug. 10 to 14 showed. It also found that 84.7 percent of Taiwanese are opposed to Beijing’s “one China” principle.
A comparison with a MAC-commissioned poll from January 2019 in which 75.4 percent of respondents said they opposed Beijing’s unilateral claim shows a clear trend: Taiwanese, especially young people, identify increasingly less with China, despite its efforts to curb “separatist activities,” lure Taiwanese to China through its “31 measures” policy, cognitive warfare campaigns to spread “Chinese dream” propaganda, disinformation on key issues in Taiwan, import bans on agricultural products from the nation and the most recent drills.
In the foundation’s survey, 100 percent of respondents aged 20 to 24 opposed the “one China” principle, while 92 percent of those aged 25 to 34 and 87.4 percent of those aged 35 to 44 opposed it. All groups of respondents — whether broken down by gender, age, party affiliation, education level or ethnicity — opposed the principle, showing that there is a clear consensus among Taiwanese. The survey also found that 62.4 percent rejected the idea that “Taiwan should refrain from pursuing international status and recognition to avoid antagonizing China,” indicating that Taiwanese desire stronger ties with other democracies. At least seven countries or regional organizations are planning to send delegations to Taiwan in the coming months.
Xinhua news agency on Tuesday reported that China imposed sanctions against seven Taiwanese officials for being “diehard Taiwan independence separatists.” However, some of them said that the designation was “a rare honor” and proof that their efforts to defend Taiwan’s freedom and democracy are infuriating Beijing.
If China continues to escalate its military threats against Taiwan, it will only strengthen Taiwan’s opposition to its policies and draw support for Taiwan from more democratic countries, which will in turn condemn Beijing’s threats to regional security and the international order.
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