About 67 percent of Taiwanese consider China to be more of a threat to the nation than the US, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed yesterday.
The poll was conducted after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) concluded their respective visits to the US and China.
About 53 percent of respondents said that the US shares similar interests with Taiwan, while 51 percent said Taiwan could not afford to distance itself from the US and China.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Responding to the poll’s hypothetical question of whom they would choose if forced to pick between the US and China, 60.8 percent sided with Washington, while only 25 percent said they wished to maintain closer ties with Beijing.
Tsai’s stopovers in the US before and after her visit to Central American allies received general public acclaim, with 61.6 percent of respondents saying the visits helped improve Taiwan-US relations, and 72.2 percent saying the president’s international visits helped increase Taiwan’s international profile.
About 80 percent of respondents said they were proud to be Taiwanese, the poll showed.
Comparing the visits by Tsai and Ma, 47.9 percent of respondents said Tsai fared better, while 25 percent said that Ma performed better.
Asked to consider the visits separately, 60.6 percent were satisfied with Tsai’s performance during her visit, while only 35 percent were satisfied with Ma’s.
Association secretary-general Wang Chih-sheng (王智盛) said the results of the survey showed that Taiwanese favor the US over China, adding that they might serve as a reference basis for cross-strait policies proposed by the candidates in next year’s presidential election.
The poll was conducted on Monday and Tuesday via random landline telephone sampling, targeting citizens aged 20 or above across the nation’s 22 municipalities.
The results had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Additional weighting was given to poll data based on the respondents’ place of residence, gender and age, all of which referenced a January report by the Ministry of the Interior’s Department of Household Registration.
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