#Newspaper

Australia’s trust in China and confidence in Donald Trump have hit new lows

//Australians are more distrustful of the world… this year has captured historic lows in trust in its closest trading partner China and even its closest strategic ally, the United States.

//Only 23 per cent of Australians surveyed trusted China ‘a great deal’ or ‘somewhat’ to act responsibly in the world, down from 52 per cent in 2018.

//22 per cent of Australians said they had confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping to do the right thing in world affairs, almost half of the 43 per cent backing he got in 2018.

//The poll... taking into account some of the impact of coronavirus, but not the recent Australia-China trade stoush and China’s warning to students to reconsider travel to Australia.

//Many Australians will have lived their lives differently if China had acted more quickly and with more transparency

//Sixty-eight per cent of people said they now feel ‘less favourable towards China’s system of government’ when thinking about China’s handling of the pandemic.

//confidence in President Xi had already been sliding in last year’s survey results and the Hong Kong protests, as well as human rights abuses in Xinjiang province against Uyghurs, may also have been a factor.

Confidence in Trump

//While 78 per cent of Australians said its alliance with the United States is very or fairly important to Australia’s security, 51 per cent said they trust the country to act responsibly in the world, down 30 per cent from a 2009 high point.

//Thirty per cent of Australians said they had confidence in US President Donald Trump to do the right thing in world affairs.

//his America First policies aren’t good for Australia...“He puts his interests above his allies and cuddles up to autocrats, such as photo-ops with Kim Jong Un. This sort of embrace of autocracy doesn’t go down too well in Australia,”

//Seventy-three per cent of Australians said they would prefer democratic nominee Joe Biden to be president over Mr Trump.

Decoupling from China

//A huge 94 per cent of Australians said they wanted the government to look for other markets to reduce its economic dependence on China.

//a shift in the public eye of China as the source of economic prosperity to Australia to being a risk because of what is seen as economic dependency

//half of Australians still thought China should be an economic partner.

COVID-19 response

//One in ten Australians thought the US had handled it well, while 31 per cent said China had.

Full Article: NewsColony, (23-Jun)

Further reading:
Trump's campaign was trolled by TikTok users in Tulsa
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/21/politics/tiktok-trump-tulsa-rally/index.html
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor: China charges Canadians with spying
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53104303
Singapore PM says China can’t take America’s security role in Southeast Asia
https://theprint.in/world/singapore-pm-says-china-cant-take-americas-security-role-in-southeast-asia/435799/%3Famp

#Australia #Trump #China #Xi #Trust #Decoupling #Economy #Coronavirus #AmericaFirst