Despite improved relations between Taiwan and China over the past year, China remains at the top of a list of countries that young people consider unfriendly toward Taiwan, a survey by the King Car Education Foundation found.
In the poll, conducted last month among senior high school and university students, 82.9 percent of respondents cited China as a country unfriendly toward Taiwan.
Second on the list was South Korea, which was named by 33.3 percent of respondents.
Among the countries viewed as friendly toward Taiwan, Japan topped the list, named by 44.4 percent of respondents.
While 41.6 percent of the students said they thought the US was friendly toward Taiwan, 29.7 percent said it was unfriendly.
The US, China and Japan were most often named as the countries most important to Taiwan’s economic and trade development. The US was cited by 84 percent of respondents, China by 78.7 percent and Japan by 75.7 percent.
Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they considered it important to enhance their English skills, while 60.8 percent said they thought having a global perspective would help them boost their international competitiveness.
However, only 22 percent of students said they kept up with current events abroad on a daily basis. Most students said they only paid attention to a single topic of interest when it came to foreign news, such as sports or entertainment.
Most of those polled agreed that access to information from abroad, proficiency in a foreign language and knowledge of etiquette in other cultures were essential to having a global perspective.
Inability to communicate in foreign languages, lack of knowledge about other countries and lack of experience hosting foreign guests contribute the most to difficulties in dealing with foreigners, most students said.
The survey was conducted among 1,738 students in seven urban areas and had a margin of error of 3 percent.
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