The issue has triggered public concern over Taiwan’s diplomatic situation since the United States expressed its opposition Monday to President Chen Shui-bian’s resolve to push for a referendum on the U.N. bid under the “Taiwan” designation.

The private Institute for National Policy Research (INPR), a think tank, conducted the poll on Taiwan’s diplomatic prospects June 15-16 in which 1,070 valid questionnaires were collected, with a margin of error of three percentage points.

According to the survey results, 48 percent of the respondents said they agree with the idea that China’s diplomatic suppression of Taiwan will increase and that the suppression will continue no matter which political party wins the 2008 presidential election.

Sixty-eight percent of the respondents said they know Beijing spent NT$14 billion (US$427 million) to buy diplomatic recognition from Costa Rica, attributing this to the severance of the 63-year-old diplomatic partnership between Taiwan and the Central American country June 6.

Seventy percent said China has never stopped trying to damage Taiwan’s friendships with foreign countries, lock Taiwan out of influential international organizations, suppress Taiwan in every different field and hurt Taiwan people’s feelings.

Meanwhile, 87 percent said Taiwan, as a sovereign country, does not need to seek China’s consent before seeking membership in major international organizations, and 77 percent of the respondents expressed disagreement with the notion that Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China.

Asked what Taiwan should do to expand its diplomatic relations, 57 percent of the respondents said it should boost civic exchanges with foreign countries and international groups, 48 percent said it should join international organizations, 43 percent said it should make efforts to maintain relations with the United States, Japan and Europe, and 23 percent said it should try to get more diplomatic allies.

Analyzing the poll results, Cheng Duan-yiao, director of National Chengchi University’s Institute of International Relations, said that the results show not many people see “increasing diplomatic allies” as an important diplomatic task.

Quoting the survey results, Cheng said many people now think that it is more important for Taiwan to engage in pragmatic international exchanges than to seek diplomatic allies, which suggests that people want the government to take practical diplomatic approaches.

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