Australians don’t trust Xi’s China, but want to get along
A new survey finds Australians want the Morrison government to improve relations with Beijing, despite their deep distrust.
Most Australians want the Morrison government to improve relations with China, despite their deep distrust of Xi Jinping’s assertive administration.
A new survey by Sydney’s University of Technology has found the public concerned about Chinese interference, worried about Beijing’s use of arbitrary detention and convinced Mr Xi’s rising power is a security threat.
But the survey of 2000 Australians’ opinions on China — the biggest since the bilateral relationship imploded more than a year ago — also found more than six in ten want the federal government to try to build strong connections and ties with China.
“Australians are clearly still trying to make sense of this period of tumult and understand a constantly evolving strategic situation,” said Elena Collinson, lead author of the report published by UTS’s Australia-China Relations Institute. “While Australians are concerned about both the downward spiral in relations and China’s new assertiveness, they are not yet willing to give up on the relationship entirely.”
Beijing erupted after the Morrison government in April 2020 called for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, which was first found spreading in Wuhan in central China.
The UTS survey found that call was overwhelmingly popular, with more than seven in 10 saying the government was right to ask for an investigation. Mr Xi’s administration responded with a campaign of trade strikes on Australian exports worth more than $20bn a year, including coal, wine, barley, lobster and timber.
The survey — conducted in late March to early April — found more than three-quarters of Australians now mistrust the Chinese government. It also found 80 per cent thought the country was “too economically reliant on China”.
However, six in 10 said “‘without close engagement with China, Australia would not be as prosperous as it currently is”.
Only 32 per cent thought the Morrison government had managed the China relationship well. Residents of the iron ore state of Western Australia were particularly critical. But more than six in 10 Australians said they wanted the government to take a harder line on China and 67 per cent said China was a security threat.
China’s Foreign Ministry, state-owned media and government-linked academics all insist the breakdown in the relationship is entirely the fault of the Australian government. Beijing has accused Canberra of being beholden to the “China threat theory” and doing the bidding of its security partner, America.
Most Australians surveyed — 80 per cent — said Beijing and Canberra shared responsibility for improving the relationship.
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