Public split over whether US would defend Taiwan By Chang Yun-ping STAFF REPORTER Thursday, Apr 27, 2006,Page 1
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2006/04/27/2003304786 The public is almost evenly split over whether the US would come to Taiwan's defense if China attacked, an opinion poll suggested yesterday. The poll conducted by the Taiwan Thinktank on the meeting last week between US President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) indicated that 52 percent of the public expected US support should a war break out in the Taiwan Strait. Political scientist Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) of Soochow University yesterday said the result showed that the majority of people regard the US as a friendly ally. However, Lo added that this view was at odds with public opinion in the US, as past surveys there on public support for the US sending troops to defend Taiwan averaged at only 30 percent. Perception gap "There is an obvious gap between what the Taiwanese people think they can get and what the American public are willing to give to Taiwan," Lo said. The survey also showed that 60 percent of respondents did not believe remarks made by Hu during his visit to the US that "China has been dedicating itself to maintaining world peace and stability." Only 30 percent of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supporters said they believed Hu when answering the same question, according to the poll. Lo said the result showed it was a misconception that Taiwanese people only focused on the "soft side" of China -- namely its economic attractions -- and that they have noticed both the positive and negative aspects of China's rise. Joint efforts Meanwhile, the poll also showed that 77 percent of respondents favored the idea of Taiwan, China and the US jointly managing cross-strait stability. Twenty-six percent of respondents, meanwhile, felt that the Bush-Hu meeting had damaged US-Taiwan relations. The poll was conducted last weekend with a sample size of 1,099 people. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
