Yeah, it’s quite surprising that only 55% of the Taiwanese polled stated that they’d support Taiwan’s position. It quite probably is true that most don’t think it’s a big issue, especially considering that Taiwan got a negative score in Concerned About Foreign Attack. However I’m not quite sure how they (45%) would consider the US to be a bigger threat than China is, since Taiwan isn’t on bad terms with the US and China is the one who drops (empty or not) threats against Taiwan every now and then.
The question wasn’t phrased like threat to your sovereignty or well being, but “greatest threat to the world”. So while the USA might not attack them specifically, and China might even attack them specifically, most people probably concluded that for everyone else, they’re more likely to be attacked by the USA than China. Or that the USA does more negative actions (political interference, polluting, etc) that impact other countries.
Only a small portion of the 55% need to think that way for it to become the majority answer. A very large portion of the correspondents don’t even think China is a threat to them. (Them being the correspondent as a person, not the Taipei-based institutions). So among that 45%, the USA is a very likely pick for greatest threat to the world.
Sorry. Turns out I didn’t read the proposition right. I missed that it’s asking about the threat to the world. To my defense, the screenshot attached to the post didn’t say so, but the post title and (presumably updated) figure in the site linked to does. Yes, in that case I agree that the most popular answer in Taiwan would be the US. Thank you for pointing it out to me!
Yeah, it’s quite surprising that only 55% of the Taiwanese polled stated that they’d support Taiwan’s position. It quite probably is true that most don’t think it’s a big issue, especially considering that Taiwan got a negative score in Concerned About Foreign Attack. However I’m not quite sure how they (45%) would consider the US to be a bigger threat than China is, since Taiwan isn’t on bad terms with the US and China is the one who drops (empty or not) threats against Taiwan every now and then.
The question wasn’t phrased like threat to your sovereignty or well being, but “greatest threat to the world”. So while the USA might not attack them specifically, and China might even attack them specifically, most people probably concluded that for everyone else, they’re more likely to be attacked by the USA than China. Or that the USA does more negative actions (political interference, polluting, etc) that impact other countries.
Only a small portion of the 55% need to think that way for it to become the majority answer. A very large portion of the correspondents don’t even think China is a threat to them. (Them being the correspondent as a person, not the Taipei-based institutions). So among that 45%, the USA is a very likely pick for greatest threat to the world.
Sorry. Turns out I didn’t read the proposition right. I missed that it’s asking about the threat to the world. To my defense, the screenshot attached to the post didn’t say so, but the post title and (presumably updated) figure in the site linked to does. Yes, in that case I agree that the most popular answer in Taiwan would be the US. Thank you for pointing it out to me!