Taipei, Oct. 30 (CNA) A Cross-Strait Policy Association (CSPA) poll released Monday found that most respondents supported the position of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on cross-strait relations than that of Kuomintang Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).

During a press conference to publicize its latest poll findings on cross-strait relations, CSPA Chairman Tan Yao-nan (譚耀南) revealed that 44.8 percent of respondents supported Tsai's stance on Taiwan-China relations, while 28 percent favored Ko and 18.3 percent supported Wu.

Similarly, 43.2 percent of those surveyed think Tsai is most capable when it comes to protecting Taiwan's sovereignty and interests. In comparison, only 23.9 percent of respondents thought Wu would do the best job of defending Taiwan and 20.8 percent thought Ko was the man for the job.

The poll also asked: Who is best at dealing with pressure from China? Once again, Tsai came top with 36.7 percent, followed by Wu with 26.3 percent and Ko at 22.1 percent.

Confusing the issue somewhat, a majority of respondents indicated a belief that all three politicians position on cross-strait relations is to maintain the status quo.

In actuality, however, Tsai has repeatedly called for dialogue between Taiwan and China to come up with a new model of cross-strait exchange, while Wu is a champion of the 1992 consensus and would most likely favor a return to cross-strait relations as they were under former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

As for Ko, his relationship with Beijing has been more erratic with him calling for China to recognize Taiwan's independence in 2015 but more recently talking about how China and Taiwan "belong to one family."

(By Yeh Su-ping and Kuan-lin Liu)
Enditem/AW