The majority of respondents to a survey about the public’s views on Taiwan-China relations support the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Thursday.
According to the survey of 1,072 individuals, 84.9 percent were supportive of maintaining the status quo between Taiwan and China, with 1.6 percent saying they were looking forward to unification and 6.8 percent supporting Taiwan declaring independence as soon as possible.
Asked about their response to President Tsai Ing-wen’s (???) cross-Taiwan Strait stance in her recent National Day speech, 77.1 percent expressed support while 12.3 percent were against.
In the speech, Tsai stated several commitments, including to “renew with one another our enduring commitment to a free and democratic constitutional system,” and that “the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China should not be subordinate to each other.”
Tsai also laid out her administration’s commitments to “resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty” and that “the future of the Republic of China (Taiwan) must be decided in accordance with the will of the Taiwanese people.”
The poll, which the non-governmental Election Study Center at National Chengchi University was commissioned by the MAC to undertake, also revealed that 77.1 percent felt that Beijing was “unfriendly” towards the Taiwan government, while 9 percent had the opposite view.
On Beijing’s attitude towards Taiwanese people, 57.9 percent chose “unfriendly,” while 29.1 percent chose “friendly,” according to the MAC.
Meanwhile, public views remain strongly against Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula, with 85.6 percent opposing it and 5.4 percent agreeing.
“One country, two systems” refers to a constitutional principle formulated by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (???) during the early 1980s, in which distinct regions such as Hong Kong and Macau can be part of China while provisionally retaining their own economic and administrative systems.
The poll, which was conducted from Nov. 10-14, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.99 percentage points, according to the center.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel