More than half of mainland Chinese citizens oppose the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
The study, designed jointly by the Atlanta-based Carter Center and Emory University, found that 55.1 per cent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances”, while 24.5 per cent disagreed or somewhat disagreed. A fifth of respondents were neutral.
Yet on Russia respondents expressed more hawkish views: 66.1 per cent said it was in China’s national interest to support Russia’s actions in Ukraine, while 5.8 per cent disagreed and 28.2 per cent felt neutral.
On India, 79.7 per cent of respondents supported maintaining Beijing’s border claims with the South Asian country even at the risk of conflict, while the rest, about a fifth, preferred a more diplomatic approach.
Similarly, 81.1 per cent believed that the Philippines and Vietnam should respect China’s sovereignty claims over the South China Sea and cease their objections, regardless of what international law says.
The online study of 2,211 Chinese citizens aged 18 and 54 was conducted between September 1 and 25 by survey company Dynata. The sample was designed to reflect the demographic distribution of the country’s internet-using population.
