Taiwan poll: More than 70% of respondents believe political opposition and social differences are the biggest crisis

China News Service, Taipei, October 12 (Reporter Lu Mei) A Taiwanese non-governmental think tank, the Democratic Culture and Education Foundation, released a poll in Taipei on the 12th. It pointed out that more than 70% of the Taiwanese people surveyed believe that Taiwan’s biggest crisis comes from political opposition and social differences on the island, rather than the mainland’s strength or the so-called “military threat.” More than half of the people support proactive dialogue and negotiation with the mainland, rather than "firmly opposing reunification and resisting to the end if necessary."

Since the beginning of this year, the heads of state of China and the United States have met twice. This poll shows that half of the respondents are aware of the "new positioning of Sino-US relations", with those with graduate degrees or above having the highest awareness at 72.8%; more than half of the respondents believe that if the mainland accelerates its peaceful reunification, the United States is more likely to "remain neutral and not intervene"; 47% of the people agree with the statement that "Taiwan can no longer rely on the United States to confront the mainland"; regarding Taiwan's future direction, 55% of the respondents support proactive dialogue and negotiation with the mainland under certain conditions.

Chen Luhui, a professor at Taiwan National Chengchi University, further analyzed the poll data and pointed out that "you cannot rely on the United States alone" has become a relatively majority consensus in Taiwanese society. Among young people aged 20 to 29, the proportion of this agreement reached 59.4%. The proportion of this group in favor of proactive dialogue and negotiation with the mainland and "do not want to be a bargaining chip" is also close to 60%. Respondents in this age group agree more with these two survey questions than other age groups.

Li Shengfeng, vice chairman of the New Party, noted that with the changes in Sino-US relations, the proportion of respondents who believe that Taiwan will find it difficult to maintain the so-called "neither unification nor independence" status quo has reached 33.5%, which is significantly higher than the relevant data from previous polls. He pointed out that Taiwan must face reality, face reunification, discuss reunification, and replace confrontation with negotiation.

This poll is open to Taiwanese people over the age of 20 and was conducted in the form of telephone interviews, with 1,074 valid samples. At a 95% confidence level, the sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.