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.
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.