More than 70 percent of Taiwanese believe the nation lacks the capacity to defend itself in a war, while more than 60 percent oppose legislators’ efforts to block the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.52 billion) special defense budget, a survey released yesterday by the Taiwan Inspiration Association (TIA) showed.
The majority of Taiwanese support the Cabinet’s budget proposal and oppose efforts by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to block it, TIA director Lai Jung-wei (賴榮偉) told a news conference in Taipei.
The survey showed that 62.5 percent of respondents do not support the opposition parties’ efforts to block the special defense budget, while 34.7 percent view their actions as appropriate.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Among respondents who identified as TPP supporters, 43.6 percent said they did not support efforts to stall the budget, while 70 percent of people older than 60 said they disagreed with the opposition on the issue.
Regarding defense, 70.7 percent of respondents said Taiwan has insufficient capacity to defend itself in a war, with 41.4 percent citing Taiwan’s lack of sufficient military hardware as the main reason.
In the event of a Chinese invasion, 56.4 percent said they do not believe US would come to Taiwan’s aid with troop deployments, while 42.1 percent said it would.
While 51.1 percent said they believe Japan would send troops to aid Taiwan, 47 percent disagreed.
The poll showed that 55.9 percent of respondents are satisfied with the performance of the Cabinet and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), while 42.7 percent said they are not.
Respondents who are not satisfied with the Cabinet’s performance cited “political wrangling between the parties” as their top complaint, followed by the prevalence of telecom and Internet fraud, cross-strait issues and inflation, Lai said.
Dissatisfaction over cross-strait issues being in the top three complaints reflects people’s view that the central government is responsible for the current state of relations with China, and indicates that Beijing’s military drills and propaganda campaigns have been effective in undermining confidence in the government and creating a negative perception of the DPP, political science professor Wang Jen-hung (王宏仁) said.
The survey showed that 66.1 percent of respondents disagree with a statement by KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) that “we are all Chinese,” while 32.9 percent said they agreed.
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