Taipei [Taiwan], July 21 : A survey by Taiwan-based Academia Sinica has claimed that nearly 60 per cent of Taiwan's residents say China's threat against Taiwan has increased in the last few years, reports the Voice of America.
James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of European and American Studies, was quoted as saying, "The broad themes that the survey addresses are the credibility of the United States and how that has changed over time, the threat of China, and how respondents in Taiwan interpret U.S. and Chinese signals."
The survey found that 80.6 per cent of Taiwan residents believe Taiwan and China do not belong to the same country, while 13.6 per cent said Taiwan and China belong to the same country.
The report also showed an increase of 7.2 percentage points in U.S. credibility, from 34 per cent in 2023 to 41.2 per cent this year, reported the Voice of America. Taiwan residents were split on the likelihood of the U.S. defending Taiwan if Trump is reelected, compared to the Biden administration.
"An overwhelming percentage of people in Taiwan do not believe that China is credible. Such trend is very consistent and stable for the last four years. Only about 10 per cent of Taiwanese believe that China is credible," Jude Blanchette, Freeman chair in China studies at CSIS told Voice of America.
The survey comes at a time of heightened tensions between Taiwan and China. On Sunday the Ministry of Defence of Taiwan detected 22 PLA aircraft and 8 PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan until 6 a.m. 15 of the aircraft crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's northern, southwestern and eastern ADIZ. The Ministry said that they monitored the situation and responded accordingly.
The escalation comes even as Taiwan is gearing up for the annual Han Kuang military exercises slated for July 22-26.
According to a statement from the Ministry of National Defence Taiwan, the exercise seeks to refine operational plans in light of an increased threat from the Chinese PLA.
"In recent years, the PLA has increasingly intensified military threat to our country. With the enemy's possible actions and operational thinking rapidly evolving, the ROC armed forces refine the operation plans for the defence to meet our needs," the Ministry of Defence said.
The focus this year is on unscripted combat scenarios aimed at testing troops' responses to decentralized command, updated Rules of Engagement (ROE) and nighttime operations, a report by the Central News Agency of Taiwan said.
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