Nearly half of Australians believe China will become a military threat in the next 20 years and a majority believe Canberra is allowing too much Chinese investment, according to a poll released yesterday.
The survey of 1,002 Australians, commissioned by the Lowy Institute foreign policy think tank, found 44 percent saw China as a looming defense threat.
Of those, 87 percent said it would be because Australia would be drawn into any conflict with China as an ally of the US.
Photo: AFP
Released as Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard headed for her first visit to China as leader, the poll found 75 percent saw China’s growth as good for Australia, but 57 percent thought there was too much Chinese investment Down Under.
A majority, 58 percent, also thought Canberra was not doing enough to pressure Beijing on human rights, though that was down from 66 percent a year earlier, Lowy research fellow Fergus Hanson said.
The number who thought Australia should join with other countries to limit China’s influence also fell from the previous year from 55 percent to 50 percent.
Slightly more than half (52 percent) supported Australia joining a coalition to defend South Korea if it was attacked by North Korea.
“And if China, Australia’s largest trading partner, intervened to support North Korea against South Korea, even more — 56 percent — were in favor of sending Australian forces to help the South,” Hanson said.
Gillard has pledged to urge China to help tame the North and soothe tensions on the Korean Peninsula during her visit, which began late yesterday.
Michael Wesley, director of the Lowy Institute, said the poll reflected the complexities of Australia’s relationship with China, with whom it conducts annual trade worth about US$50.6 billion.
“The results show just how difficult it will be for Ms Gillard to balance the economic demands of the relationship with the Australian public’s concerns about human rights abuses in China, its military expansion and negative perceptions about Chinese investment in Australia,” Wesley said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in