Close to 80 per cent of Taiwan's people support the island using the title 'Taiwan' to join the United Nations despite opposition from rival China, an opinion poll showed Tuesday.

The poll, conducted by the private Taiwan Thinktank, found that 79 per cent of the 1,072 respondents supported using the name 'Taiwan' to join the United Nations after Beijing wooed away the island's Central African ally of Chad.
On August 6, Chad switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, a rival of Taiwan since the two sides split at the end of a civil war in 1949.

The think tank said Chad's decision resulted in a rise of nationalistic sentiment and resulted in an increase in the number of people supporting a recent government plan to apply to join the world body in the name of Taiwan. Polls conducted in the eight months leading up to the Chad development showed no more than 50 per cent support for such a move.

Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, has been applying without success over the past 13 years to rejoin the United Nations, which awarded China's seat to Beijing in 1971.
When the Chinese nationalist government lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949, it fled to Taiwan to set up a government in exile but continued to hold China's UN seat until 1971.
China has blasted Taiwan's UN bid as a scheme to internationalize the 'Taiwan issue' and pave the way for Taiwan to formally declare independence from China.

China has warned that if Taipei declares independence or seeks de-facto independence by changing Taiwan's official name, national anthem or constitution, Beijing would use force to recover Taiwan.