Survey finds 60 percent of Taiwan residents feel Chinese threat has increased in last few years

The survey, conducted by Taiwan-based Academia Sinica, gauged the island residents’ perception of the United States, along with how they view China’s growing threats to peace and stability, reported Voice of America.

James Lee, assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, explained the themes of the survey on Thursday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies during a panel discussion.

“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,” Lee said.

Jude Blanchette, Freeman chair in China studies at CSIS and host of Wednesday’s virtual panel discussion, said the survey was released at an appropriate time.

“There’s a growing recognition of Taiwan’s importance both for global supply chains but also for the defense picture in the Indo-Pacific, especially for the United States,” he said.

The report also revealed that there is an increase of 7.2 percentage points in U.S. credibility, from 34% in 2023 to 41.2% this year.