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Only one in three US voters can locate Taiwan – or Ukraine — Analysis

A survey conducted after Pelosi’s visit showed only 34% could point the island out on a map

Even though corporate media coverage of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan managed to reach 71% of the American electorate, a mere one in three were able to actually locate the island on a map of Asia, according to a Morning Consult survey published Thursday.

Pelosi visited Taiwan on August 2, as the media tracked her plane and reported on both her trip and Beijing’s furious response to it.

August 6 – 7, during “heavy media coverage”Morning Consult conducted an analysis of the trip. “survey experiment”Below is a sample of 2,005 US-registered voters. 

Only 34% of respondents were able to locate Taiwan – more or less accurately – on a blank map of Asia. 86% reported that they heard about Taiwan. “at least something” about Pelosi’s trip. It is interesting that this was exactly the fraction of American voters who was able identify Ukraine using a map early February. 

People who could locate Taiwan were “significantly more likely” to have heard about China’s retaliation to Pelosi’s visit. More than 75% of them knew about the People’s Liberation Army launching missiles and sending jets to the Taiwan Strait, compared to 60% and 56% respectively among the overall electorate.

Comparing the August results to the survey taken in May, Morning Consult found that Pelosi’s visit barely moved the needle on Americans’ opinions when it came to Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China, however.

The number of those who would support sending Taiwan more intelligence, sending more US troops to Asia, and sending them to Taiwan in particular, all rose by two percentage points – but support for sending Taipei more US weapons dropped by the same amount. Actually, the percentage of those who would support diplomatic relations with Taipei fell by 1 percent. 

Even though the Biden administration has officially committed to keeping the ‘One China’ policy, only 18% of American voters support recognizing Taiwan as part of China – with 51% now opposed, up from 49% in May.  Morning Consult noted that the poll had shown an increase in support for Taiwan as part of China. “unweighted margin of error”Not to exceed two percent.

Beijing considers Taiwan sovereign Chinese territory. After losing the Chinese civil conflict to the Communists in 1949, nationalists ruled the island.

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