A total of 86.7 percent of people in Taiwan prefer maintaining the status quo between the two sides of Taiwan Strait, according to a survey released March 29 by the ROC Mainland Affairs Council.
The poll showed 81.9 percent support the government in continuing to promote the peaceful and stable development of cross-strait relations in accordance with the ROC Constitution and President Ma Ying-jeou’s principle of no unification, no independence and no use of force.
It also found that 72.7 percent do not agree with Beijing’s concept of one China, while 78.6 percent believe the development of cross-strait relations will benefit if mainland China squarely faces the reality that the two sides are under separate rule and respects the will of Taiwan’s people.
The MAC said that the government is committed to promoting institutionalized negotiations and official exchanges between the two sides based on the 1992 consensus of one China, with respective interpretations, which means that each side having its own interpretation of what this means.
Such efforts over the past eight years are supported in the survey’s findings: 87 percent prefer the government to continue to promote official exchanges and institutionalized negotiations. As for the pace of cross-strait exchanges, a total of 45.1 percent said it is appropriate: 21.5 percent considering it too fast and 21 percent, too slow.
When it comes to the ROC’s former diplomatic ally The Gambia, which resumed March 18 official ties with mainland China, 70.8 percent support the government in expressing strong discontent over the matter.
The telephone poll conducted March 18-22 nationwide, comprised 1,108 valid responses from citizens aged 20 and above at a confidence level of 95 percent and margin of error of plus or minus 2.94 percent. It was carried out on behalf of the MAC by Taipei City-based National Chengchi University’s Election Study Centre. (YCH-JSM)
