More than 60 percent of Taiwanese worry that Taiwan’s economy depends too much on China, while as many as 75 percent of young people in the country consider themselves Taiwanese, not Chinese, the results of a CommonWealth magazine poll showed.
Prior to the survey, polls conducted by several organizations and media outlets showed that the decline in Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) support at the local elections earlier this month was associated with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) China-leaning economic policies.
The recent poll showed that as many as 61 percent of respondents worried that Taiwan’s economy was too dependent on China.
More than 70 percent of respondents, meanwhile, said they were not satisfied with the current economy, while only about 20 percent said they were satisfied with it.
Meanwhile, 62 percent of respondents said they considered themselves Taiwanese, while 22 percent thought of themselves as Taiwanese and Chinese and only 8 percent considered themselves Chinese.
As many as 75 percent of the respondents aged between 18 and 29 considered themselves to be Taiwanese.
Foundation on Asia-Pacific Peace Studies chairman Chao Chun-shan (趙春山) was quoted by the magazine as saying that, in similar polls in the past, most people would choose the option “Taiwanese but also Chinese” because they identified with Chinese culture and Chinese ethnicity.
However, nowadays the term “China” tends to represent the People’s Republic of China, and thus Taiwanese people identify more with Taiwan.
Asked about the independence-unification issue, 11 percent of respondents said they would like Taiwan to declare independence “as soon as possible,” 2 percent said they preferred unification with China as soon as possible, while 78 percent preferred the “status quo.”
Thirty-three percent of respondents said that while they preferred to maintain the “status quo,” they would like to see Taiwan eventually declare independence, 35 percent said they wanted the “status quo” to remain permanent and 10 percent said they would like to see Taiwan eventually unify with China.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS