TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The latest Pew poll shows an 8% increase in the percentage of Americans who believe tensions between China and Taiwan are a serious problem since March.

On Wednesday (Oct. 19), the Pew Research Center released the results of its latest poll, which found Americans increasingly concerned about serious problems for the U.S. posed by China's actions. A majority at 71% felt that Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping's (習近平) third term is a serious problem, with 41% deeming it somewhat serious and 30% finding it very serious.

Highest on the list of concerns was the partnership between China and Russia, with 87% listing it as a serious matter, including 57% labelling it very serious and 30% marking it as somewhat serious. Similarly, 86% believe China's military power is a serious issue, with 50% saying it is very serious and 36% designating it somewhat serious.

In addition, 82% considered economic competition a serious matter, with an even split between those marking it very serious or somewhat serious. China's policies on human rights concerned 80% of respondents, with 42% saying it is very serious and 38% stating it is somewhat serious.

When it comes to Taiwan, tensions between the country and China worry 82% of respondents. Of these, 39% find it somewhat serious and those who think it is very serious have risen to 43%, an increase of 8% since March this year.

This spike in concern over tensions in the Taiwan Strait follows U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's historic trip to Taiwan in early August and China's aggressive response that included setting up six live-fire zones around Taiwan and firing ballistic missiles over Taiwan. Since then, tensions have remained high as People's Liberation Army naval vessels and military aircraft have repeatedly crossed the median line and launched drones over Taiwan's outer islands, prompting Taiwan to shoot down at least one UAV.

Asked if high-level U.S. politicians should visit Taiwan "even if it harms bilateral relations with China," 54% said they should. On the other hand, when posed a similar question of whether top officials should visit China "even if it means not having high-level politicians visit Taiwan," only 38% agreed.

Breaking down the demographics of those favoring diplomatic trips to Taiwan, 62% of males were in favor, while 46% backed the idea. People with a college degree were more likely to support diplomatic travel to Taiwan at 63%, compared to 50% among people without a college degree.

In terms of party affiliation, the notion that top U.S. officials should visit Taiwan received bipartisan support, with 56% of Democrats and Republicans in favor. Within these parties, conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats were similarly in favor of politicians traveling to Taiwan at 61% and 64%, respectively.

However, moderate Republicans and Democrats were far more ambivalent, at 48% and 49% in favor, respectively.

The survey was conducted from Oct. 10-16 and gathered responses from 5,098 U.S. adults with a sampling error of plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.