Mainland Chinese favour diplomacy to achieve Taiwan reunification with caveats - South China Morning Post

Mark Magnierin New YorkPublished: 5:14am, 6 Oct 2026Updated: 5:45am, 6 Oct 2026Mainland Chinese prefer coercion over military force to settle the “reunification question” with Taiwan, and their opinion of the US remains low, although they favour engaging with Washington on trade and security.These are the results from the latest survey of mainland citizens, conducted between April 16 and June 26. This straddled the first summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing but came before the second one in Washington last month.“The Chinese public attitude towards Taiwan fits very well with domestic messaging on Taiwan in China,” said Nick Zeller, lead researcher with The Carter Centre, which conducted the biannual China Pulse survey with Emory University.

“Peaceful cross-strait relations are far and away the preferred option. But if de jure independence were declared, if Taipei says, ‘We are now formally governing ourselves,’ you are going to see a military response.”