More than half of Taiwanese approve of president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) objection to the so-called “1992 consensus” and “one country, two systems,” a Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation poll showed yesterday.
The landline and mobile phone survey was conducted after the Jan. 13 election from Monday to Wednesday last week, collecting 1,083 valid responses from Taiwanese aged 20 or older.
The poll showed that 53.5 percent of respondents said they agree with Lai’s stance, while 33.6 percent disagreed.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The so-called “1992 consensus” — a term that former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
The majority in all age groups supported Lai’s position, although younger respondents were more likely to agree, the foundation said.
Asked whether they feared China would take military action against Taiwan after Lai’s election, 69 percent said they were not concerned that his election would cause China to expedite any potential invasion plans, while 27.3 percent said they were worried.
The results show that suggestions by KMT candidates that a vote for Lai would provoke China did not hold much sway over the public, the foundation said.
Meanwhile, three-quarters of respondents said they disagreed with former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) statement before the election that Taiwanese “must trust” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) when it comes to cross-strait issues.
Only 12.5 percent agreed with Ma’s statement.
The poll also showed that 44.2 percent of Taiwanese support independence, 10.9 percent support unification with China and 33 percent support maintaining the “status quo.”
On post-election governance, nearly 60 percent said that the government should form a coalition Cabinet since no party received a majority in the legislature, while 22 percent disagreed.
The poll had a confidence level of 95 percent and margin of error of 2.98 percentage points.
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