By Cheng Hung-ta and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writerAn overwhelming majority of Taiwanese believe Taiwan is a sovereign and independent nation, the results of a poll released yesterday by the Taiwan Brain Trust think tank showed, with 75.8 percent of respondents supporting the sentiment, while 18.9 percent disagreed. However, 79.8 percent of respondents said that Taiwan should maintain the “status quo” in regard to its relationship with China. The think tank said the telephone survey was conducted between 6:30pm and 10pm on Oct. 13 among randomly selected respondents aged 20 or older. The think tank said it collected 1,079 valid samples, adding that the poll has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. This was the first public opinion survey conducted by the think tank since its operations in August were handed over to the Ketagalan Foundation, an organization operated by supporters of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Source: Taipei Times October 28, 2016 16:01 UTC