Nearly 90 percent of the public identify themselves as Taiwanese and about two-thirds said they are willing to fight for the country in case of war, a survey released yesterday by the Taiwan New Constitution Foundation showed.
The question about national identity showed that 89.9 percent identify themselves as Taiwanese and 4.6 percent as Chinese, while 1 percent consider themselves to be both, the poll showed.
Given more than one choice, 67.9 percent of respondents said they are Taiwanese, 1.8 percent said they are Chinese and 27.9 percent said they are both, the survey showed.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The survey also showed that 36 percent of respondents said they would absolutely go to war to defend Taiwan, while 28.3 percent said they probably would, 12.7 percent said they would not and 7.4 percent had no opinion.
Asked about Taiwan’s future, 50.1 percent of the public support maintaining the “status quo,” 38.9 percent back independence and 4.7 percent favor joining China.
Asked about their perceptions about other countries, Japan received the most positive view with 83.9 percent, followed by the US with 75.6 percent.
In contrast, the majority, or 70.3 percent, have a negative view of China, while only 16.4 percent have a positive view of Taiwan’s neighbor across the Strait.
Asked about the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics, 65.1 percent of respondents said they referred to the country’s Olympic delegation as “Taiwan” in conversation, while 27.6 percent said they called it “Chinese Taipei” or “Zhonghua” (中華), the poll showed.
More than 82 percent said they regretted that the country took part in the Tokyo Olympics under the name “Chinese Taipei,” and that the national flag and anthem could not be displayed during the Games, it said.
Foundation chairman and founder Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏), 94, said he has supported Taiwan’s normalization as a country for five decades and hoped to achieve that goal in his remaining years.
Taiwan can only transition to a normal country by becoming the “Republic of Taiwan” — not by keeping the name Republic of China (ROC), he said, adding that the poll proves that normalization is the public’s common aspiration.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) must decide if she agrees with their view that her administration exists under the ROC’s Constitutional framework and the Constitution must therefore be changed, he said.
Asked about party affiliation, 31.1 percent of respondents support the Democratic Progressive Party, 12.4 percent back the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and 11.4 percent favor the Taiwan People’s Party, foundation deputy director Lin Yi-cheng (林宜正) said, adding that the New Power Party and Taiwan Statebuilding Party each had 3.8 percent.
The future for defining Taiwan’s status in the world and the rectification of its name rest on developing the Taiwanese national identity, he said.
Foundation deputy director Sung Cheng-en (宋承恩) said the percentage of people who identified as Taiwanese in the survey marked a substantial increase from 83 percent last year.
The poll, conducted from Tuesday to Friday last week, collected 1,071 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The domestically designed Teng Yun 2 drone passed development milestones over the weekend, flying for more than 10 hours straight and circling Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in the longest flight of an indigenous uncrewed combat aerial vehicle. Developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the Teng Yun 2, or “Cloud Rider” (騰雲二型), recorded its longest flight yet over the weekend, after a three-hour test flight last month, followed by five and seven-hour stretches in the air. The Teng Yun 2 No. 1812 departed from Chiashan Air Base in Hualien County at 6:46pm on Saturday and flew on a
A slew of new measures are to take effect on Friday, including nationwide bring-your-own-cup discounts. The new rule requires chain beverage shops to offer discounts of at least NT$5 (US$0.17) to customers who bring their own cups, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said. The policy would apply to more than 50,000 chain retail locations, including beverage shops, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. It aims to cut down on waste from single-use plastic cups, more than 2.2 billion of which were used in Taiwan in 2020, the agency said. For convenience, the EPA said it has asked retailers to display signs stating how
TIMING: 'The CHIPS Act funding is crucial for us. In other words, if the act’s passage is delayed for too long, we will certainly need to adjust,’ chairwoman Doris Hsu said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) plans to start construction on a US$5 billion wafer fabrication facility in Texas in November, after passage of the US$52 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. The fab would be the largest of its kind in the US and one of the largest in the world, with a monthly capacity of 1.2 million wafers, GlobalWafers said, adding that the investment would be the first new fab in the US in more than 20 years and critical to closing a semiconductor supply chain gap. The world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier said the project, which
COUNTERING CHINA: ‘When democracies demonstrate what we can do ... I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,’ US President Joe Biden said US President Joe Biden rebooted his effort to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) after an earlier campaign faltered, enlisting the support of G7 leaders at their summit in Germany. The Build Back Better World initiative, named after Biden’s domestic spending and climate agenda, struggled to get off the ground because not enough G7 partners contributed financially when it was unveiled a year ago, people familiar with its lack of progress said. “When democracies demonstrate what we can do — all that we have to offer — I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,” Biden said during