French public supports Taiwan's narrative on sovereignty: Survey

Taipei/Paris, Dec. 15 (CNA) French public opinion overwhelmingly supports Taiwan rather than China when it comes to the question of Taiwanese sovereignty, according to a survey jointly published last month by the Descartes Foundation and the Institute of Advanced Studies in National Defence (IHEDN).

Based on questionnaire responses from 4,000 French people in August, the study -- titled "Penetration into France of foreign narratives on contemporary conflicts" -- looked into French attitudes towards the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war, France's military operations in Mali, and the "China-Taiwan Crisis."

The survey results showed that French people overall are "very sensitive" to Taiwan's narrative and "not very sensitive" to China's, though "respondents close to the far left and, to a lesser extent, the far right are on average more sensitive to the Chinese narrative on Taiwan's status."

The survey introduced French respondents to the current cross-strait situation with the following remarks: "Today, Taiwan is de facto a separate state from mainland China, with its own institutions. However, China claims Taiwan as one of its provinces and does not rule out the use of force to assert its authority there."

Respondents were then asked how much they agreed or disagreed with three statements expressing China's narrative and three reflecting Taiwan's to gauge their views on Taiwanese sovereignty.

In terms of the statements presenting the Chinese narrative, 46.7 percent disagreed and 28.4 percent agreed that "the United States and other Western powers are illegitimately intervening in China's internal affairs by supporting the Taiwanese government."

Moreover, 48.4 percent disagreed and 20.3 percent agreed that "Taiwan is historically Chinese and is an integral part of Chinese territory" while 72.2 percent disagreed and 11 percent agreed that "only the Chinese government has the legitimacy to decide the future of Taiwan."

As for statements reflecting the Taiwanese perspective, 79.5 percent agreed and just 6.2 percent disagreed that "it is up to the Taiwanese people, not the Chinese government, to decide freely and democratically on the future of Taiwan."

"As Taiwan is a democracy, its autonomy from China is essential for the defense of democratic values in Asia and around the world" received 72.9 percent approval and 7.7 percent disapproval.

Meanwhile, 69 percent agreed with and 8.3 percent disagreed with the statement: "Since Taiwan has never been under the authority of the Chinese Communist Party; when China speaks of 'reunification' between Taiwan and China, it is in reality envisaging unification by force."

The survey also asked respondents to consider statements reflecting the competing narratives of Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas, and France and Mali.

Of all the narratives presented to the French survey recipients, approval of Taiwan's perspective was the highest.

In addition, those who tended to support China's narrative on the issue of Taiwanese sovereignty were also found to be more likely to express support for Russian, Hamas, and Malian narratives.