Nation's sense of Taiwanese identity growing: DPP polls

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on October 9, 2006. It reports that according to a series of opinion polls conducted over the past 10 years, more citizens of Taiwan are identifying themselves as Taiwanese, rather than as Chinese or as both.

The 77 opinion polls about national identity were conducted by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) between 1995 and 2006. According to DPP's analysis of the results, more than 60 percent of the people in Taiwan identified themselves with the nation. Particularly after the presidential election in 2004, only approximately 20 percent said that they identified with China.

According to DPP's analysis, in 1995, people disagreed sharply on their national identity. Approximately 35 percent said that they were Chinese, while 32 percent said they were Taiwanese. However, after the presidential election in 1996, close to half of the people surveyed identified themselves as Taiwanese.

The percentage of people who said that they were Chinese dropped to about 20 at this time. Later, during the presidential election in 2000, more than half of the respondents identified themselves as Taiwanese. But this percentage decreased between September and November 2002. Meanwhile, the number of people who said that they were Chinese, or both Chinese and Taiwanese, remained unchanged during this period of time.

According to DPP's analysis, this result indicated that many people who previously said that they were Taiwanese became more undecided about their national identity.

After September 2003, when the DPP started its campaign to deliver a new Constitution, the number of people who said that they identified with Taiwan rose to more than 60 percent. Although the DPP's analysis did not specify what caused people's attitudes to shift, some party officials suggested that "Taiwanese consciousness" began to become better understood after former president Lee Teng-hui and President Chen Shui-bian assumed office.

According to these DPP officials, the party felt comforted by the results of these opinion polls because they showed that people in Taiwan do not "fantasize" as much about China as they previously did.