Nearly three-quarters of Americans would support the US recognizing Taiwan as an independent country to defend the nation in the event of a Chinese invasion, while a majority supported US defense assistance to Taiwan, a Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute poll showed on Thursday.
The institute’s Reagan National Defense Survey assesses perspectives on key issues in defense, national security and foreign policy.
Seventy-two percent of respondents supported the US defending Taiwan by “officially recognizing Taiwan as an independent country” in the event of a Chinese invasion, the poll showed.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
The majority also supported the US to take other measures in such a situation, including imposing economic sanctions against China, moving US military assets to the region, sending more military equipment to Taiwan and establishing a no-fly zone in the area, it showed.
Forty-six percent supported committing US ground troops to the defense of Taiwan, with the rate rising yearly from 39 percent in 2019, the institute said.
Beijing’s military buildup and human rights abuses were the most concerning aspects of Chinese activity, with each option selected by 20 percent of respondents, the survey showed.
Asked whether they were concerned about the potential of China invading Taiwan, 31 percent said that they were “extremely concerned” while 42 percent said that they were “somewhat concerned,” it showed.
Support for US security assistance to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan was 71 percent, 67 percent and 65 percent respectively, it showed.
Support for increasing the US military presence near Taiwan and arms sales to deter China from launching an attack was 60 percent and 55 percent respectively, it showed.
Respondents were more likely to support sending US troops to help Taiwan repel an invasion when informed that the nation has a democratically elected government, and is a major manufacturer of electronics and semiconductors, the institute said.
Seventy-one percent were concerned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would prompt other authoritarian countries to invade their democratic neighbors, it said.
Asked if they saw Taiwan as an ally of the US, 64 percent said “yes,” while only 15 percent saw China the same way and 77 percent saw it as an enemy, the poll showed.
Respondents said that the US had superior military capabilities, diplomatic influence and economic strength than China, but Chinese artificial intelligence and cyber capabilities were seen as superior to the US, it showed.
A majority believed that China would gain military power and economic strength at a faster rate than the US over the next decade, the survey showed.
The survey was conducted from Oct. 27 to Nov. 5, garnering responses from 2,506 adults in the US via telephone and the Internet.
It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
COUNTERING HOSTILITY: The draft bill would require the US to increase diplomatic pressure on China and would impose sanctions on those who sabotage undersea cable networks US lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bipartisan bill to bolster the resilience of Taiwan’s submarine cables to counter China’s hostile activities. The proposal, titled the critical undersea infrastructure resilience initiative act, was cosponsored by Republican representatives Mike Lawler and Greg Stanton, and Democratic Representative Dave Min. US Senators John Curtis and Jacky Rosen also introduced a companion bill in the US Senate, which has passed markup at the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Relations. The House’s version of the bill would prioritize the deployment of sensors to detect disruptions or potential sabotage in real-time and enhance early warning capabilities through global intelligence sharing frameworks,
INTENSIFYING THREATS: Beijing’s tactics include massive attacks on the government service network, aircraft and naval vessel incursions and damaging undersea cables China is prepared to interfere in November’s nine-in-one local elections by launching massive attacks on the Taiwanese government’s service network (GSN), a report published by the National Security Bureau showed. The report was submitted to the Legislative Yuan ahead of the bureau’s scheduled briefing at the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The national security team has identified about 13,000 suspicious Internet accounts and 860,000 disputed messages, the bureau said of China’s cognitive warfare against Taiwan. The disputed messages focus on major foreign affairs, national defense and economic issues, which were produced using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed through Chinese
RSS