President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is likely to begin political negotiations with China if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) wins the special municipality elections next month, a poll made public yesterday indicated.
The poll, conducted by the Taiwan Thinktank, which is generally perceived as more sympathetic with the pan-green camp, found that 52 percent of the respondents considered it possible that Ma would begin political negotiations with Beijing if his party won the elections.
Among those who claimed to be politically neutral, about 43 percent said it was possible, against 38.1 percent who said it was not possible.
The poll showed that 63 percent said Ma mostly paid attention to the interests of big businesses during cross-strait negotiations, while 26.1 percent said he paid more attention to public interests. When asked whether they were worried Ma would undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty during the negotiation process, 54.0 percent said yes, while 43.8 percent said no.
About 56 percent of voters who considered themselves to be moderate said they were worried.
The poll, conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, questioned 1,046 adults nationwide and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), an executive board member at the think tank, said the poll showed the public saw clearly that Beijing would step up its political pressure after the two sides signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) in June.
“If the KMT wins the November polls, there will be very little excuse to stall the political talks,” he said.
“However, the poll tells us that many people are very worried whether the Ma administration can protect Taiwan. The Ma administration must address the problem before it worries about whether President Ma can meet his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao (胡錦濤),” Lai added.
On the country’s future, nearly 59 percent said they preferred independence, against 22.3 percent who said they favored unification with China. Those who opted for the status quo were numbered at 11.3 percent.
Among those who claimed to be politically neutral, about 57 percent chose independence.
About 54 percent said the country would move toward unification with China under Ma’s leadership, while only 29.6 percent said that sovereignty would be strengthened.
Lai said it was worth noting that a majority of the public and moderate voters were concerned about Taiwan’s future.
Former National Security Council deputy secretary-general Chen Chung-hsin (陳忠信) said various polls on the same issue conducted over the years were consistent in their results and showed a steady increase in the preference for independence.
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