A recent Ministry of Foreign Affairs poll found that more than 60 percent of Taiwanese approve of President William Lai’s (賴清德) overall handling of foreign affairs.
The poll showed that 61.2 percent of respondents approve of Lai’s approach to managing the tariff dispute with US President Donald Trump, while 61.1 percent approve of the administration’s conduct of foreign affairs overall.
The survey also showed that 66.6 percent of respondents approved of Lai’s handling of last year’s official visits to the three Pacific nations with which Taiwan maintains formal diplomatic relations.
Photo: AFP / Taiwan Presidential Office
The Pacific nations are the Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu.
In addition, 73 percent of respondents supported Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung’s (林佳龍) “democracy, peace and prosperity” diplomatic strategy — a slight 0.3 percent dip compared with last year.
The poll found that 65.5 percent of respondents expressed confidence in the ministry’s program to support the economic development of nations with which Taiwan maintains diplomatic relations, while 55.9 percent said they were confident in Lin’s overall performance as minister of foreign affairs.
According to the survey, 87.9 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that it is easy and convenient to travel with Taiwanese passports.
In terms of regional security, the poll showed that 80 percent of the public believed that freedom of navigation operations conducted last year by Taiwan’s international partners made the nation safer.
In addition, 81.4 percent of respondents supported the ministry’s condemnation of hostile actions by China, including military exercises near Taiwan, interference in domestic politics and its misrepresentation of UN Resolution 2758 as justification for Taiwan’s exclusion from international organizations.
The poll revealed 84.9 percent of Taiwanese supported deepening economic ties with US states and territories, while 69.2 percent identified China as the most serious security threat in the Indo-Pacific region and 67.1 percent agreed that China is a hostile foreign power.
The survey also found that 53 percent of respondents view foreign affairs as more important than cross-strait relations, an increase from 46.7 percent in November last year. That reflects a growing interest in developing ties with countries beyond China.
The survey was conducted by True Number Survey Research from May 2 to Thursday last week. Respondents were Taiwanese adults aged 20 and older.
It yielded 1,686 valid samples, with a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
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