80 percent of Taiwanese disapprove of China's pressure

Taipei, June 17 (CNA) A recent survey found about 80 percent of the public disapproved of the recent moves by China to squeeze Taiwan's international space, a consensus the pollster said was supported by people irrespective of gender, age, education level, party affiliation, ethnicity, and area of residence in Taiwan.

The survey, conducted by Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation, gauged people's opinion on recent developments in relations across the Taiwan Strait, among other issues, by asking how they felt about China enticing Burkina Faso to cut diplomatic relations with Taiwan and demanding international airlines list Taiwan as a part of China.

According to the result, 79.1 percent of the respondents disapproved of these actions by China, with 50.2 percent expressing strong disapproval, and 11.9 percent saying the actions were appropriate. The remaining 9 percent did not give their opinion.

On the next question asking respondents whether they have confidence in President Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) administration in terms of safeguarding Taiwan's international participation, 60.3 percent said they had no such confidence against 32.7 percent who answered positively. About 7 percent did not give their opinion.

The result showed that 68 percent of respondents in the 25-54 age group and 69 percent of respondents with a college degree or higher said they were not confident in the way the Tsai administration has handled the pressures China has been ramping up on Taiwan.

You Ying-lung (游盈隆), chairman of the polling institute, said that the results signaled a "crisis of confidence" among young and highly educated people in the Tsai administration's ability to handle diplomatic issues.

The administration needs to come up with better strategies rather than just put the blame on China or it will continue to be mired in the crisis of confidence, You said.

The survey, conducted from June 12-13, collected 1,073 valid responses. It has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.