The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) announced today (23rd) the results of a routine survey on the “Public’s Views on Present Cross-Strait Relations,” which was entrusted to the Election Study Center of the National Chengchi University. The survey shows that with regard to the pace of the present cross-Strait trade and economic exchanges, 33% of the respondents say that it is “just right.” As to the restrictions of the Government on the investment of Taiwanese businessmen in the Mainland, 58% of the people believe that they should be “stricter.” Moreover, 77% of the public think that the cross-Strait direct transportation links should be “relaxed with certain conditions,” while 54% of the respondents think that the pace of the relaxation should “slow down a bit.”
With regard to the pace of relaxation of cross-Strait civilian exchanges, 36% of the respondents say that it is “just right;” 20% say “too slow;” while 14% say “too fast.” With regard to the people’s perception of the Mainland’s hostility toward Taiwan, close to 70% of the respondents say that the Mainland authorities are unfriendly toward the Taiwan Government, while 48% believe that the Mainland authorities are unfriendly toward the Taiwanese people. The proportion of respondents saying that the Mainland is hostile to the Taiwan Government increased by 4.5% over the previous survey (conducted in April 2004), reaching a new high in the past year.
Moreover, approximately 73% of the respondents oppose the Mainland's advocating the "One Country, Two Systems" formula in the development of cross-Strait relations, while less than a tenth of the respondents are in favor. On the issue of unification vs. independence, 82% of the respondents advocate the maintaining of the status quo meant in the broad sense. Among these, the people advocating "maintaining the status quo and deciding on independence or unification later depending on the circumstances" make up the largest proportion (36%), which is consistent with the trend shown in previous surveys.
The poll was conducted from July 16 to 18, 2004 through a telephone survey of Taiwanese adults over the age of 20 in the Taiwan area. A total of 1,153 valid samples were collected. With a 95% rate of reliability, sampling error is approximately 2.98%.