TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Over half of Taiwanese support formal independence for their country, according to a survey released by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation (TPOF) on Monday (June 22).
Around 54 percent of respondents support official independence for Taiwan. Meanwhile, 23.4 percent prefer maintaining the status quo, 12.5 percent favor unification with China, and 10 percent do not hold any particular view on the matter, the survey found.
Compared to the last poll on the issue, published in December of last year, the most recent one saw an 8.1 point rise in support for formal independence, the highest level since the survey was first conducted in 1991, said TPOF Chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆).
The number of Taiwanese in favor of the status quo dropped by 3.4 percent, and those backing unification edged up a slight 0.8 points, reported Newtalk. You said this indicates a seismic shift in public sentiment towards Taiwan’s fate is underway.
Separately, around 66 percent of Taiwanese back the government’s stimulus voucher scheme set to kick off in July, according to the poll. Nevertheless, the same number of respondents, around two-thirds of the total, believe it is too complicated and that cash distribution would be preferable, wrote Liberty Times.
Carried out by Focus Survey Research from June 15-16, the survey collected 1,074 valid samples from adults aged 20 and over. It has a confidence level of 95 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.99 percent.