Australians join world in distrust of Chinese regime

In what may be the least surprising news all year Beijing’s popularity has taken a further dive in the global opinion polls.

In what may be the least surprising news all year Beijing’s popularity has taken a further dive in the global opinion polls.

Historically high numbers of people in advanced economies now have negative views of the Chinese government, claiming it does not respect the rights of its people.

And by a margin of almost two to one, Australians would now rather have close economic ties with the US over Beijing.

This is almost a complete reversal from just six years ago, when half of Australians were keen for closer economic ties to China, and just 27 per cent preferred to be close to America.

The data, released on Thursday by the highly respected Pew Research, also found that in the 15 out of 17 highly developed countries surveyed, more than 80 per cent of people said that they did not think China respected the personal freedoms of its people.

Chinese President Xi Jinping during the celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party at Tiananmen Square on July 1. Picture: Getty

Among Australians, that number hit a high of 91 per cent, just one point lower than South Koreans’ assessment of China’s totalitarian regime.

The survey also found that very few people in any nation had any trust in Chinese leader Xi Jinping doing the “right thing” in world affairs.

According to Michael Shoebridge, director of Defence, Strategy and National Security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the results are a direct result of Beijing’s actions.

“This is part of a broader international shift in populations in many countries on China, all driven by the way Xi is ruling China and the more aggressive, intrusive, angry approach he has brought that is flavouring official government interactions, public diplomacy and finding its way into internal discussions inside China about the rest of the world,” he said.

And this is likely to get worse, Mr Shoebridge said, as China lords it over the world with its celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communisty Party.

Members of Women Muslim Uighur minority hold placards and flags as they demonstrate to ask for news of their relatives. Picture: AFP

“The strident, self-congratulatory celebration of the CCP we are seeing now, along with the efforts of 90 million strident Party members joined by forced but fervent participation by celebrities and other luminaries means that this collapse in China’s ‘soft power’ will grow,” he said.

“Chinese leaders may discount this because they retain connections to business elites and pro-Beijing advocates who continue to believe the Party line about its inevitable rise and others equally inevitable decline.

“But Xi’s rule has shifted the terms of engagement that China has with the wider world, in ways that disadvantage China.

“Amid all the red lighting, hammers and sickles, exotic traditional costumes and tears of joy, there is the odd disconnect that this year the Chinese government made a further year on year increase to its spend on its huge and well armed internal security forces.

China continues to spend more on internal security than it does on its enormous military. That makes you wonder why this is necessary, given all the ‘spontaneous’ joy being portrayed about the Party.”