Poll: Most Taiwan people oppose "independence"

A latest poll conducted by Taiwan's United Daily News shows 45 percent Taiwan people are opposed to Chen Shui-bian's call for abolishing Taiwan's "Unification Council" and its unification guidelines. They regard the move as against Taiwan's interest.

Only 12 percent of the respondents support Chen's attempt and 21 percent think it isn't a proper time now.

On the issue of the cross-Straits relations, 10 percent of the surveyed "wish a reunification as soon as possible"; 12 percent of them favor "first keeping the status quo and then reunification"; 41 percent favor "making the status quo permanent".

It can be seen that 63 percent of the surveyed now demand either reunification or "maintaining the status quo".

In addition, as many as 88 percent of people list "economic development" as the top goal for Taiwan while only three percent of them hope the Taiwan question be prioritized.

A poll by China Times shows that 34 percent people support the cross-Straits policy of Kuomintang (KMT) while 12 percent of them favor the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). China Times analyzes the statistics as indicating that Taiwan people's stance on reunification remains basically unchanged after Chen Shui-bian's remarks as people who hold pro-independence and pro-reunification views both take up about 20 percent of the total.

However, the larger percentage of those holding that "the status quo be kept first and reunification depends" is thought-provoking.

By People's Daily Online