Taiwanese now believe Japan is more likely than US to send troops if mainland China attacked

Name: Taiwanese march in solidarity with Ukraine as Russian invasion seen as wake-up call for island
Uploaded: 2022-03-22T07:04:56.000Z
Duration: 3 min 21 s
Description: Taiwanese march in solidarity with Ukraine as Russian invasion seen as wake-up call for island

A poll finds there has been a sharp fall in the numbers who believe Washington would intervene militarily, from 65 per cent in November to 35 per cent today

Ukraine ‘had profound effect on public opinion’, says chairman of think tank that carried out the survey

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Beijing has never renounced the use of force to regain control of the island. Photo: AP

Kyodo

Published: 3:04pm, 22 Mar 2022Updated: 3:51pm, 22 Mar 2022

Around 40 per cent of Taiwanese believe Japan would dispatch troops to help defend the island if mainland China attacked – more than those who think the United States would come to their assistance, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

The two-day survey conducted from March 14 by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation found that 43 per cent of the respondents believe Japan would come to Taiwan’s aid militarily should Beijing attack, while those who said the United States would dispatch troops to the island came to 35 per cent.

You Ying-lung, chairman of the foundation, a private think tank, attributed the significant shift in public opinion to the “effect of the Ukraine situation”, saying the conflict between Ukraine and Russia had had an immense impact on the Taiwanese public.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in late February, has sparked an international outcry, with the United States engaged in the unfolding conflict in Ukraine.

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Taiwanese march in solidarity with Ukraine as Russian invasion seen as wake-up call for island

In the previous survey in November, 58 per cent of those polled said they thought Japan would dispatch troops for Taiwan’s defence, while 65 per cent believed the US military would do so.