Aussies alarmed over China’s rise
New polling has revealed what Australians really think about China – and also our surprising concern about one of our closest allies.
National
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Australians have expressed grave concerns about China, with 70 per cent saying we should be more cautious in our dealings with the Asian superpower.
The sentiment was captured in a YouGov survey of 2297 Australians, conducted exclusively for NewsCorp, with the concern about China cutting across all age groups, and all states.
Just 8 per cent of respondents said the current relationship with Beijing was “about right”, while 12 per cent said we should have closer ties, and 10 per cent said they didn’t know. Seventy per cent said we should “be more cautious” – one of the strongest unified responses to any of the 38 questions asked in the survey.
Professor Clive Hamilton, an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said the survey results were predictable, “as there has been a collapse in public sympathy towards China since Beijing’s aggression against Australia”.
“We need to accept that Beijing will continue with its diplomatic deep freeze and trade punishment for the foreseeable future,” he said. “We’ve adapted to that and the forecasts of disaster have not materialised. We are better off for being less dependent on, and less afraid of, China.”
Prof Hamilton said he was interested in the 12 per cent of Australians who wanted closer ties with China.
“Who are these people? I’m guessing a mixture of craven business people, pro-CCP Chinese-Australians, and elements of the ‘anti-imperialist’ left,” he said.
Professor James Laurenceson, Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at
Sydney’s UTS, said the caution was not surprising, “given we are entering the sixth straight year of heightened political tensions between Canberra and Beijing”.
“Beijing hasn’t helped its cause by disrupting selected Australian exports and taking other actions like detaining Australian citizens on murky allegations,” Prof Laurenceson said.
“At the same time, we shouldn’t miss that China’s support for the Australian economy at an aggregate level has never been higher than it is right now.”
A report by Oxford Economics in late 2021 showed the value of Australian exports to China had jumped 24 per cent in the space of a year, driven largely by soaring prices for iron ore.
The YouGov survey also revealed a significant level of concern Australians have towards the USA. While just 13 per cent of respondents said we should be more careful in our dealings with the United Kingdom and 19 per cent said we should be more cautious with the European Union, that proportion jumped up to 34 per cent when those surveyed were asked about the United States.
Bruce Wolpe, Senior Fellow at the United States Studies Centre, said the survey results showed a “bedrock” level of support (30 per cent of respondents said the current relationship between Canberra and Washington was about right, and 28 per cent said ties should be closer), but it was clear Australians had grown increasingly concerned about the US.
“Australians are worried about the staying power of the United States, given the past five years – four years of Trump and one year of Biden, in which Biden is trying to repair those (international) relationships,” he said. “Australians are also looking at the fraying of American democracy, the stresses it is under, and what that means for America’s future.”
Many of the anxieties could be traced back to former US President Donald Trump, Mr Wolpe said.
“Trump was not popular in Australia, and I think Australians are very concerned about Trump returning,” he said.
But Australians had a high level of awareness about a range of issues in the US, Mt Wolpe said.
“The daily drumbeat of news is domestically violence, terrorism, the recent synagogue attack [in Texas], immigration issues, mass shootings … people just see tumult in the United States. The news coverage helps drive Australians to look at the US and be worried, and I think that’s what this [YouGov] figure reflects.”
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