TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An international survey saw a majority of respondents in half the countries polled support a break in economic ties with China if they invade Taiwan, reports said Wednesday (June 1).
The question was posed in a wide-ranging opinion poll about issues of democracy as part of the Democracy Perception Index (DPI), CNA reported. The survey was conducted by brand tracking service Latana with the Alliance of Democracies between March 30 and May 10, with 52,785 interviewees from 53 countries.
A total of 26 countries saw the majority of their respondents support cutting economic ties with China in the case of an invasion, with the highest levels of support registered in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Japan respectively. Sweden, Australia, the United States, Canada, and several European countries followed suit.
India and South Korea were some of the rare Asian countries advocating a break with Beijing, but most Southeast Asian nations, including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines did not feel a Chinese attack warranted tough economic sanctions, according to the survey. Only respondents in Russia and Greece expressed greater opposition to cutting ties with China than those in Indonesia.
The survey noted that people in some of the communist country’s largest trading partners favored cutting ties, while only three EU members, Greece, Hungary, and Romania, wanted to keep economic links with Beijing.