By Rommel F. Lopez
A survey conducted among 14 advanced economies in the world showed unfavorable views toward China rising in the past year.
A telephone survey conducted by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center, conducted from June 10 to Aug. 3 among 14,276 adults from Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United States, found that majority in each of the countries had an unfavorable opinion of China.
Survey results released Tuesday showed negative views against China were the highest in Australia, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, South Korea, Spain and Canada since the Pew Research Center started the survey on the topic more than a decade ago.
The survey also showed a median of 61 percent said China had done a bad job dealing with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak, while 37 percent believed it had done a good job.
Respondents who think the Chinese government had done a bad job in handling pandemic are more likely to have an unfavorable view of the country as well.
On the other hand, the United States had a worse rating with a median of 84 percent across the 14 countries saying the global superpower handled the pandemic poorly.
Meanwhile, a median 78 percent of respondents in the 14 countries rated Chinese President Xi Jinping with poorly saying they had “not too much or no confidence in Xi to do the right thing regarding world affairs.”
Surprisingly, those who gave China high marks for handling the outbreak did not give the same to Xi. Four in 10 who gave China’s coronavirus outbreak a positive mark say they do not trust Xi.
On the other hand, while distrust in Xi rises, more had faith in him than in U.S. President Donald Trump. In Germany, while 78 percent distrust Xi, 89 percent said the same of Trump.
Back in July here in the Philippines, a Social Weather Station (SWS) survey showed similar results with Filipinos’ trust in China dipping further from “poor” to “bad”
The July 3 to 6 survey found that 58 percent of Filipinos said they had “little trust” in China, while only 22 percent said they had “much trust” in the communist country. Eighteen percent were undecided.
The same poll found that more Filipinos trust the United Stated more than China with the US receiving a net trust rating of +42.