Fear of war dips in Taiwan despite rise in US-China tensions over island

Annual poll finds Taiwanese fear of conflict in coming months has fallen 15 percentage points in the past year

A declining number of Taiwanese people fear an imminent war with China, according to a new poll suggesting the rest of the world is far more worried than those at the centre of this potential geopolitical flashpoint.

According to the poll, published on Thursday by Taiwan's Commonwealth Magazine, 35.4% of respondents said they were worried about a military conflict breaking out over the Taiwan Strait within the next year, a decrease of nearly 15 percentage points on last year's survey. The survey also found 59.7% of people do not think Beijing will ultimately use force to take Taiwan, while more than 35% believed it would.