The majority of Hsinchu city and county residents support merging the two areas, compared with one-quarter who oppose the idea, although most people do not support including Miaoli County in the plan, a poll found yesterday.
Since Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) on Monday last week proposed combining the two administrative areas into a “Greater Hsinchu,” potentially to be upgraded to become the nation’s seventh special municipality, residents have been hotly debating the idea.
To gauge public sentiment, Green Party Taiwan members Hsinchu City Councilor Liu Chung-hsien (劉崇顯), Hsinchu County Councilor Yu Hsiao-ching (余筱菁) and Jhubei Council Representative Chen Kuan-yu (陳冠宇) commissioned Focus Survey Research to poll Hsinchu city and county residents.
Of the 1,614 people surveyed via telephone from Friday last week to Tuesday, 74.3 percent said they were aware of the proposal, and 56.5 percent supported merging Hsinchu city and county, while 24.8 percent opposed the idea.
“It is clear that creating a ‘Greater Hsinchu’ has been a long-standing latent desire” of residents, the Green Party Taiwan said yesterday.
On upgrading the city and county to a special municipality, 67 percent of respondents believed it would help ‘Greater Hsinchu’ receive adequate central government assistance, 62 percent said it would make the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) more competitive internationally and 62.1 percent said that an upgrade would improve transportation, pandemic prevention and other governance issues.
However, the poll showed clear opposition to the idea of including Miaoli County in the plan, an idea floated by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) to boost the combined population past the 1.25 million threshold necessary to become a special municipality under the law.
“The opposition is overwhelming,” the Green Party Taiwan said, citing the 71.6 percent of respondents who opposed the idea, compared with only 20.35 percent who supported it.
Although some have speculated that Hakka residents would support a merger with Miaoli County, as all three areas have large Hakka populations, the poll showed the assumption to be false, as 69.6 percent of Hakka respondents opposed the idea, the party said.
“What is certain is that any national or local politician thinking of proposing a ‘Greater Hsinchu and Miaoli County’ plan should expect a backlash from Hsinchu city and county residents,” it said.
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