Sixty-three percent of respondents had a positive outlook for Taiwan-US relations, regardless of who wins the US presidential election, an Association of Chinese Elite Leadership survey showed yesterday.
Asked how they thought bilateral relations would develop after the election, 52.8 percent of respondents said that the situation would be similar to before the election of US President Donald Trump in 2016, 10.2 percent said they thought the relationship would improve, 24.3 percent said it would worsen and 12.7 percent declined to answer, the association said.
Taiwan National Policy Research Association consultant Tung Li-wen (董立文) told a news conference in Taipei announcing the results that they showed most Taiwanese are optimistic about the future of the Taiwan-US relationship.
Photo: CNA
Asked about their views on post-election US-China relations, 47.1 percent said they thought that the relationship would improve, 33.5 percent said it would become “fair and unbiased, as it was prior to 2016,” 11.2 percent said it would worsen and 8.2 percent said they were unsure or declined to answer, the survey showed.
Asked about their views on Taiwan’s two main political parties, 42.6 percent agreed and 50.8 percent disagreed that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was “pro-China and anti-US,” while 67.9 percent agreed and 26.9 percent disagreed that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was “pro-US and anti-China.”
Asked which party’s stance aligned best with the opinions of Taiwanese, 51.2 percent said the DPP and 19.3 percent said the KMT, the survey showed.
Asked which party would best protect Taiwan’s national security, 45.2 percent said the DPP and 21.5 percent said the KMT, it showed.
The survey, conducted on Thursday and Friday, collected 1,077 valid samples and had a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
Separately, the Facebook account of the American Institute in Taiwan on Friday was inundated with messages such as “Biden is a joke,” and “the US Republican Party are the dogs of the evil Chinese Communist Party.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that the messages were an attempt to “drive a wedge between supporters of each party and destroy the US-Taiwan relationship.”
Additional reporting by Peng Wan-hsin
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