CHAPTER 4 COMPARISON OF THE MOVEMENTS AND QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS
4.2 Q UESTIONNAIRE RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
4.2.2 Measuring the impacts of cross-‐strait movements in Taiwanese students
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an interesting option because the intention of this proposition was to measure if Taiwanese students taking the survey found more appealing an idea that provided equal level of strength to ethno-cultural and state nationalism. Finally, the two least selected options were a variant of “political or state nationalism” (only considering born citizens) and “ethno-cultural nationalism”. The first with only 43 votes (9.3 percent [+/- 4.5]) defends that to be Taiwanese is to be a born citizen in the territory of the Republic of China. The second is the least appealing because it talks about the “native culture” that refers only to the aboriginal tribes of Taiwan.
4.2.2 Measuring the impacts of cross-strait movements in Taiwanese students.
The rest of the questions in the survey conducted had the objective of measuring the following information.
1) Students source of information. Most of the students prefer to obtain their information from Internet sources.
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2) Readership. As Tilly mentions it is important for the population to be informed in order to be aware of the developments of their surroundings. Without readership activism would not take place.
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3) Opinion the reliance of the media in regards of cross-strait relations.
This specific question was made to see if the students in Taiwan trust the media currently after the controversial situation lived during the Anti-media monopoly Movement. Only 7 percent (+/- 4.5) completely agreed and 40 percent (+/- 4.5) agreed that the media has now a Pro-China tendency. Therefore, currently students see media outlets less politicized.
Interestingly, in the following question students largely identify as not reliant the information coming from the media outlets in terms of cross-strait relations. The results are conclusive 27 percent (+/- 4.5) completely disagree and 57 percent (+/- 4.5) disagree that they can obtain objective information from this source.
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4) Interest in social movements taking place in China and Taiwan.
From the 460 students interviewed, 20 percent (+/- 4.5) of the students completely agreed in having interest for the democratic movements taking place within the PRC. Moreover, 53 percent (+/- 4.5) agreed of having interest. The results shows that most of the students do have an interest on social movements happening in the PRC and the ones that do not are very low.
In the case of Taiwan 38 percent (+/- 4.5) completely agreed to have interest for the democratic movements taking place there and 45 percent (+/- 4.5) agreed on the same regards. Again, the interest of students in collective actions is very high.
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5) Acquaintance with the OCLP movement and its claims.
From the 460 students interviewed 332 (72 percent) recognized that they do know what does the OCLP is. From those who knew the movement, 283 (85 percent) knew the OCLP main objectives.
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6) Measuring the level of support and empathy for the OCLP movement found in Taiwanese students taking the survey.
From the group of students that knew the OCLP movement, 33.1 percent (+/- 4.5) (N=110) completely agreed that is important for the Taiwanese society to be informed about the mayor protests taking place in the PRC like the OCLP movement. 55.7 percent (+/- 4.5) agreed on the same regard and only 10 and 6 percent (+/- 4.5) agreed and completely disagreed on this respect.
Taiwanese students taking the survey completely agreed in a 31.6 percent (+/- 4.5) (N=105) and agreed on a 51.2 percent (+/- 4.5) (N=170) that they felt empathy for struggle of Hong Kongers. This is crucial as it shows that these Taiwanese students see a strong connection between them and the Hong Kong society.
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In this question it was requested that these students provided their opinion towards other Taiwanese students that showed their support during the OCLP movement.
The result shows that the majority agrees with this behavior, as 20.5 percent (+/- 4.5) (N= 68) completely agreed and 44.6 percent (+/- 4.5) (N=148) agreed. But most important few were the ones that completely disagreed or disagreed with this behavior, with 3.6 and 5.7 percent (+/- 4.5) respectively.
The students were request to provide their views on supporting social movements in the PRC with money and other items, for the final purpose of bringing democracy to the PRC. The result obtained is slanted, showing the lack of consensus whether collective action in the PRC might be a successful endeavor or not.
7) Acknowledgement of the Hong Konger identity as valid and worth defending.
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From the 460 students interviewed 49 percent (+/- 4.5) (N= 226) completely agreed and 42 percent (+/- 4.5) (N= 195) agreed with the proposition. This confirms that these Taiwanese students not only feel empathy for Hong Kongers’ democratic struggle, but also understand their identity entails and agree that must be defended.
8) Opinion on the economic dependency of Taiwan on China.
The following question was made to detect if these Taiwanese students do feel a connection between their career opportunities and the cross-strait relations. This question comes to indirectly measure if they see a real connection between ECFA, CSSTA, etc. and their “particular” realities.
By “particular” realities the author of this study refers to the fact that students are performing different studies that will lead to a wide range of careers (politicians, doctors, dentists, etc.), and this fact might serve for them not to see a real connection with these topics. As it can be appreciated, most of the respondents answered that they do believe cross-strait relations have a strong impact for their futures career.
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The following proposition provides an insight of what is the mindset of the Taiwanese students taking the survey regarding developing further economic ties with the PRC. Needless to say, all political initiatives that come in this area will experience strong opposition from the students.
9) The Sunflower’s movement awareness campaign of ECFA and CSSTA on Taiwanese student.
The following proposition’s aim was to show the importance of the Sunflower movement’s diffusion system within the Taiwanese student population. As it can be appreciated it was very important the movement’s campaign to explain what was ECFA and CSSTA. More than three quarters of the population (73.9 percent +/- 4)
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did not know what where the agreements about until the Sunflower started its diffusion campaign.
The following proposition was made to confirm the stand of Taiwanese students taking the survey, regarding ECFA’s positive outcome. Previously it was observed that the majority of the students agree that further development of the economic relations with the PRC is a risk for Taiwan. Nevertheless, in this case, 40 percent (+/- 4.5) of the students (N= 186) agree that there is a positive side of this agreement. Although the results do not show a clear tendency, it challenges the conception that for the most part Taiwanese students taking the survey rejected ECFA.
10) Their desire for reunification with the rest of China in a hypothetical situation.
The following proposition was made for the purpose of finding out if Taiwanese students taking the survey rejected unification with the PRC on the base of political system, civil rights oppression, etc. Therefore, this hypothetical scenario was put in
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place to see if some sense of communion with their peers in the mainland (as it has been in the case of Hong Kong) transcended the types of government. The results are conclusive with 41.1 percent (+/- 4.5) (N= 189) these Taiwanese students completely disagreed and 38.3 percent (+/- 4.5) (N= 176) disagreed of unifying with the rest of China. This can be translated as a big challenge for any political force that tries to move against this idea. Taiwanese students taking the survey see in Taiwan an island nation that is no longer part of any other territory.
11) Their position on Hong Konger and Taiwanese activists working together to reject China.
When asked their opinion about the cooperation between activists from Hong Kong and Taiwan, 18.7 percent (+/- 4.5) (N= 18.7) completely agreed and 58.7 percent (+/- 4.5) (N= 270) agreed that is important for democratic reforms in Hong Kong, and Taiwanese democracy and sovereignty. This question serves to proof that students understand and see a potential benefit in the case that activists of both societies expand their cooperation.
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12) Their position on Taiwanese and Hong Kong society working together to preserve democracy, civil rights and sovereignty.
From all the respondents 76.5 percent (+/- 4.5) completely agreed and agreed (22.6 percent and 53.9 percent respectively) that is important to collaborate with the Hong Kong society to maintain Taiwan’s democracy, identity and self-determination.
13) Finally it was ask to the students to provide their perspective if an error in cross-strait relations could actually convert Taiwan into a new Hong Kong.
The purpose of this last question was to provide additional proof that in the minds of Taiwanese students taking the survey the idea of “one country, two systems” it is very clear.
Therefore, becoming a “new Hong Kong” serves as an important “connector” or
“trigger” for students to make an immediate link the “one country, two system”(originally intended to Taiwan) and revives their knowledge of the experiences Hong Kongers have lived.
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Let us summarize what was seen along the present survey. The survey was created to measure the level of readership, quality of information, interest in the social movements, recognition and knowledge of the Hong Kong situation, and measure students’ self-awareness of their environment in relation to social movements. Along the survey it was corroborated that in fact there is an important feeling of connection between Taiwanese students taking the survey and the Hong Kong society. The results provided an important insight in how do Taiwanese students taking the survey perceive themselves and their counter parts in Hong Kong in regards of increasing mutual cooperation. Furthermore, it was proved that McAdam’s model based on identity and expanded to an international level in a Robert Putman’s scenario (in which societies can be of mutual reference) is possible.
Social movements’ collaboration and connection between two societies in different countries has taken place, can be further developed not yet seen.
In the section dedicated to the media it was clear that the most use source of information is the Internet. Family and friends, printed news and television immediately followed. The readership of news was high with the majority of respondents following the news on a daily bases or five days a week. By this it can be implied that students are constantly increasing their knowledge of different events and in the future case another mobilization takes place, this part of the society would be informed about it and most probably, as it will show later, participating in some degree.
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Moreover, opinions regarding the pro-PRC tendency found in the media were divided.
Although 7.6 percent (+/- 4.5) and 40 percent (+/- 4.5) of the respondents completely agreed and agreed that this is the case, 16.3 percent of the respondents decided not to respond. This came in addition to the 3.3 and 33.8 percent (+/- 4.5) of students who completely disagreed and disagreed with the proposition. Thence, students do not sense media outlet is pro-China bias.
Students’ perspective was completely different in the case of the reliance of information regard cross-strait relation. When students were asked about the reliance of the cross-strait information provided a conclusive position (27 percent (+/- 4.5) completely disagreed and 57 percent (+/- 4.5) disagreed) labeling the information of the media outlet as: not trustworthy.
Furthermore, when asked their interest on social movements in China and Taiwan students were largely interested. The 73 percent (+/- 4.5) agreed (23 percent completely agreed and 50 percent agreed) on the fact that they feel interested in social movements in China. In the case of Taiwan the number ascended to 83 percent (+/- 4.5) (38.3 percent completely agreed and 45.4 agreed). This is important because, on one hand, in the case of Taiwan they recognize the level of importance these groups have for the society and their democracy.
On the other hand, students recognize the importance protests in the PRC has, which vindicates the presence of the perceived threat the PRC system has for Taiwan.
Following this line of thought, the students were immediately asked if they knew about the OCLP movement. More than three quarters knew what was and what their claims were.
Most importantly, the ones that knew felt “empathy” for the movement. In this particular case the present author provided a clear definition of empathy so no element remained loose and students that completely agreed or simply agreed, clearly knew on what basis.
This feeling is crucial to detect a sense of communion between the two sides or in other words, to clearly establish the causation link between Taiwanese students taking the survey and people in Hong Kong. The results are clear 31.6 percent (+/- 4.5) of the respondents completely agreed on and 51.2 percent (+/- 4.5) agreed on experiencing the feeling. In total
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82.8 percent (+/- 4.5) (N= 275) of the 332 students (72 percent of the 460 students interviewed) that knew about the movement experienced a degree of connection with the struggle of the people in Hong Kong.
Nevertheless, when asked about agreeing with their fellow students in showing support for the OCLP movement, the number lowered to 65.1 percent (+/- 4.5). The reason for this number to lower is because 25.6 percent (+/- 4.5) prefer neither agree nor disagree (N= 85) to the proposition than rather opposing it. The numbers of those opposing this proposition amounted only for 5.6 percent (+/- 4.5) completely disagreeing (N= 19) and 3.6 percent (+/- 4.5) disagreeing (N= 12).
Finally, to close the connection experience by Taiwanese students taking the survey for the Hong Kong society and activists, the survey changes the focus and approaches the connection through local events. Therefore, it was requested for respondents to provide their opinions on regards of:
1) Economic interdependence between the PRC and Taiwan,
2) Their position within this reality (when asked if their career is influenced by cross-strait relations),
3) The possible negative impacts of interdependence between Taiwan and the PRC, 4) The impact of the Sunflower movement diffusion campaign awareness in regards of
CSSTA and ECFA,
5) The possible positive effects of the ECFA agreement, 6) The definition of the Taiwanese identity,
7) The hypothetical case of returning to the PRC,
8) Students’ opinions in regards of both societies collaborating, 9) And lastly, if Taiwan could become a new Hong Kong.
The objective of asking all respondents to provide their positions’ in all of these instances was for: a) asses their stance of local developments and b) see if by recollecting these situations they could make a connection between local issues and the cross-border issues of
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another community. As it was shown, even before this section, is that students do recognize as important to create a stronger link of collaboration between Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Conclusion
Through the present chapter it was presented the differences and similarities of the social movements and the results of the survey. The study provided evidence that even though contrasts are evident between both sides, there is a common ground to be found. The core ideas behind each social movement in fact are not so different. Both social movements find in the PRC a clear threat, have an identity that makes a distention from the rest of China, and seek self-determination. This fact would be confirmed in the survey.
The results of the survey proved that Taiwanese students taking it feel empathetic, support and understand Hong Kongers claims, and their identity. This confirms that there is a sense of communion found in these Taiwanese students towards their counter parts in Hong Kong. Therefore, it does exist the ground for activists in Hong Kong and Taiwan to reach Taiwanese students of these universities and obtain their support. By the same token, this confirms that McAdam’s dynamic interactive model based on identity in a Robert D.
Putman case of cross-border of two societies using each other as reference, has taken place between Taiwan and Hong Kong and could be further developed.
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