DPP poll says half of the people support independence

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 14, 2006. It reports that according to results of a recent survey, half of the people in Taiwan favor independence. The telephone survey was conducted by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's Department of Culture and Information.

In the survey, which was on China's military expansion and cross-Taiwan Strait relations, 50 percent of the respondents said that they favor Taiwan independence. While 29 percent said that they think Taiwan should unify with China, 13 percent said that they support the status quo.

Officials from the Democratic Progressive Party said that the 50-pecent figure represents the highest percentage of people in favor of Taiwan independence since 2003.

Results of the survey showed that faced with China's continued military expansion, 60 percent of the respondents thought that China would pose a threat to Taiwan's security. Meanwhile, 59 percent of the respondents said that China would pose a threat to Asia's security.

Specifically, with China's deployment of 800 missiles targeting at Taiwan, 64 percent of the respondents said that Taiwan needed to beef up national defense. Only 31 percent of the respondents said that thee was no need for Taiwan to do so.

When asked whether China could sway government policy through Taiwanese businesspeople operating in China, political figures or civic groups, 60 percent of the respondents said yes. Only 31 percent of the respondents said no.

Finally, considering the fact that China is unwilling to engage in dialogue with the government in Taiwan in spite of close cross-strait exchanges in recent years, 66 percent of the respondents said that this would hurt the interests of the people in Taiwan. Only 25 percent of the respondents said that it would not.