Taiwanese admire China's economic profile, survey indicates

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on June 30, 2006. It reports that according to a recent study on the "Taiwanese view on the world", when it comes to making money, many Taiwanese display an interest in the economic prospects in China. Indeed, while some people in Taiwan may be against China in political terms, but many regard it as "an admirable country" in economic terms.

Taiwan's Global View Magazine recently conducted a computer-assisted telephone survey and asked Taiwanese over the age of 20 about which country they admired the most. Results of the survey showed that China came in third place, behind Japan and the United States.

China was also voted as the third country to which Taiwanese people most wanted to travel. More significantly, China placed sixth in the category of "the country you would most want to immigrate to".

According to the Global View Magazine, the results of the survey reflected a new phenomenon - many Taiwanese have developed a conflicting view toward China. This is something that the people and government of Taiwan might want to analyze.

Results of the survey also revealed that the global view of most Taiwanese seems to be narrow. However, about 35 percent of the survey's 1,071 respondents said that they would like to receive more information of current affairs around the world. Most of those surveyed said that they got their news from the United States and Japan.

Indeed, Japan was voted as the country to which most respondents said they would like to travel and immigrate.

Another interesting result of the survey is that 56 percent of those surveyed said they felt Taiwan's international status was relatively inferior to other advanced countries in the world. Amazingly, about 36 percent of those surveyed regarded Taiwan as a "poor" country, even though the nation's GDP was over US$14,000.

According to the Global View Magazine, the results of the survey revealed that many Taiwanese felt insecure toward the stagnant economic status in Taiwan.