2023-03-01
DPP Expresses Regret over KMT’s Attempt to Sway Public Opinion via Misleading Polls
In response to KMT Legislator Lee Guei-Min’s press conference featuring a poll indicating that nearly half of the Taiwanese people have no confidence in the United States’ guarantee of Taiwan’s security, Peifen Hsieh, DPP Spokesperson and Director of the International Affairs Department, said today (March 1) that the DPP objects to the KMT’s attempt to sway public opinion through misleading poll questions. Rather than decry the PRC’s military coercion against Taiwan, Hsieh added, the KMT is busy manipulating Taiwan’s public confidence over whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan. This is an embarrassment for Taiwan and the world. And it’s unclear whether the KMT even knows what it intends to convey through this poll.
Hsieh pointed out that the questions featured in the poll released today by KMT Legislator Lee Guei-Min are highly suggestive. For example, one bears the title “Are cross-strait issues best resolved between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, or by an intervening external force?” But this implies China is not an external force. By making such an unwarranted assumption and denying the Taiwanese an option to determine our collective future, the poll is deeply flawed and lost credibility. And to be clear, China is itself an external force in the eyes of Taiwan.
Hsieh referenced another poll released last week showing that 46.2% of Taiwanese people hold a positive view of the U.S., compared to only 16.3% who view China positively. Some 70% believe China poses a grave threat to Taiwan. Apropos of cross-strait exchanges, nearly 75% reject premising such exchanges on Taiwan accepting the arrangement of “one country, two systems.” According to Hsieh, the results of this poll reflect mainstream public opinion in Taiwan, and are evidence that, however mightily KMT lawmakers labor to craft misleading poll questions, they won’t succeed in distorting Taiwanese attitudes toward the U.S. and China, respectively.
Hsieh said, polls meant to serve certain political interests and comprising misleading questions, such as the one released by Legislator Lee, reflect the will of the party that crafts them, not of the Taiwanese people. Instead of seeking to sway public opinion in such a surreptitious way, the KMT must clarify its stance on who should determine the future of Taiwan—the people of Taiwan, or the powers that be in Beijing.
