Dear Mrs. Madeleine Korbel Albright

Most Taiwan people do not think a war will break out between Taiwan and mainland China but would defend the island if such a war took place.

According to a survey released (August 8, 1998) by the Chinese Association for Eurasian studies.

The survey showed that 61.2 percent of the people think a cross-strait war is unlikely, while 26.4 percent said it is likely. The remaining 12.4 percent said they do not know. Asked if they would fight for Taiwan if a war broke out, up to 87.7 percent of the people gave a positive answer. And only 6.8 percent gave a negative one. The remaining 5.5 percent said they do not know.

The question, which in one seldom asked in similar surveys, coincided with the recent release of the mainland's defense white paper in which Beijing reiterated that it will not rule out using force against Taiwan.

Though post surveys indicated that most people think Taiwan's military capability is inferior to that of the mainland's, it is noticeable that such a high percentage of people are willing to defend the island , Lin said. Lin Chong-pin, vice chairman of the Ministerial Mainland Affairs Council, said the result was different from most people's perception.

We are happy to see that, the Republic of China and the United States held a sub-cabinet-level meeting in Washington, D.C. on Friday (August 7, 1998) to discuss trade, economic and financial issues. We hope that similar sub-cabinet level meetings will be held regularly in the future.

However; people in Taiwan was given a grade lower than Beijing for a long time, there are 87.7 percent of Taiwanese would fight for Beijing's invasion.