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More than two-thirds of Taiwanese people would be willing to fight off a Chinese invasion of their island, a new survey found. Just over half of respondents believe that the United States would send its military to help.
Most Taiwanese people would be willing to defend their island against a Chinese attack, according to a poll published Wednesday. Most also believe that such an attack is highly unlikely in the next five years.
The poll, commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, was released a day before Taiwan’s National Day.
Should Beijing attack, 67.8% of the 1,214 people surveyed said they would be “very willing or somewhat willing” to fight in defense of Taiwan; 23.6% said they would not be.
Almost 64% said China’s “territorial ambition” in Taiwan represents “a serious threat.” At the same time, 61% said it was not likely China would invade soon.
Some 52% of respondents said that they believed key ally the United States would come to their aid in the invent of a Chinese invasion. Yet, only 40% believed that the US would send its navy to “break” a potential blockade.
I think generally most people are willing to defend their home against foreign invaders if it is at all realistic/possible. I have heard people say about refugees “Why dont they defend their homes, then they wouldnt have to flee”. But this obviously only makes sense if there is a chance of winning. When your enemies are overwhelmingly more powerful and you have no allies, then what is the point in dying for nothing.
With Taiwan they know that they have a decent military and worldwide support. So this makes sense to me.
And many flee civil wars which are more complicated than kicking out a foreign invaders.
Yeah good point. When things arent easily sorted into “good” and “bad” then getting people to put together an organized resistance is much much harder.
That’s when a dehumanized other comes in handy.
A Syrian friend in Turkey once explained to me that Turks (who love playing tough but haven’t fought a conventional war since WWI) tell Syrian refugees that they should have stayed and fought… and he’d tell them that no matter how brave you are - and Syrians are in my opinion uniquely brave - “you cannot defeat tanks and aircraft with Kashinkovs. Look at Ukraine, where they have a modern military that is weaker. Look how many left. But Syrians are supposed to fight Russian bombers and Assad’s tanks with their hands?”
Of Ukraine is anything to go off of, initial success in repelling the invasion will lead to a nationalistic wave of support, but as the war devolves into grinding attrition with China unable to get a foothold on Taiwan and the Taiwanese unable to do anything about Chinese firepower raining down on critical infrastructure, the population will want to find some sort of peace deal.
The only ‘peace deal’ would be surrender. They would be returning the attacks on mainland China. They could easily reach any coastal areas: Shanghai, Canton, Hong Kong etc.
Xiamen, a city with a population of more than 4 million people, is directly across the Strait from Taiwan.
The US will sink the entire island before China is allowed to occupy it.
I’m willing to defend my home if the people ruling it are worth defending.
You’d think so, but Europe has some pathetically low numbers for this question, with many countries below 50% and a few in the 30s.
Eh i wouldnt worry about it too much. That number would change very quickly if it came to an actual situation.
Because from 1990-2022, “fight for your country” meant help the US invade some country in the Middle East. No shit no one in Germany or France wants to do that.
Err… Taiwan is refugees, who fled China when Mao won the civil war
And how does that have anything to do with the current political siuation mr troll? People declaring independence is a thing that has been happening everywhere since forever. You think the US should be taken back by the British?