Concerns about China’s policies on human rights have led to negative views toward the world’s most populous nation, a Pew public opinion survey has found.
Negative views of China remain at or near historic highs in many of the 19 countries polled in this year’s survey, which spoke to people in North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. The findings are largely consistent with Pew’s previous study in 2020, but with some countries now reporting even more unfavorable views of China.
In the survey, a median of 79 percent of people across the countries said they considered China’s human rights policies a “serious problem.”
Respondents also expressed their concerns about China’s military power, with a median of 72 percent describing it as a “serious problem.”
The growing negative views of China’s human rights record mean that most of the people surveyed now favor promoting human rights over strengthening economic ties with China. This is particularly the case in European and North American democracies — but in Israel, the opposite is true.
Countries that have experienced deteriorating bilateral relations with China also report an emerging concern: Beijing’s involvement in their domestic politics. The suspicion of China is particularly widely shared in countries such as the US, Japan, Australia and South Korea.
On Tuesday, a separate survey by Sydney-based Lowy Institute showed that Australians’ negative views toward China continued to remain high.
“In 2022, two-thirds of Australians (63 percent) say China is ‘more of a security threat’ to Australia, while 33 percent say China is ‘more of an economic partner’ to Australia. Both of these figures have not changed since 2021,” the survey said.
In Asia, majorities in Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea favor strengthening their economic cooperation with the world’s second-largest economy, but countries such as Japan and Australia say they prefer prioritizing human rights over trade with China.
In South Korea, the Pew survey found that young people tended to have more unfavorable views of China than older people.
When asked about their views of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the majorities in all countries surveyed — except Singapore and Malaysia — said they have little confidence in Xi’s way of dealing with global affairs.
The result is not surprising. In 2020, a similar Pew survey — from the UK to Australia — also showed that a median of 78 percent across 14 nations said they had “not too much or no confidence in Xi to do the right thing regarding world affairs.”
Despite concerns about China’s human rights record, a median of 66 percent across the countries surveyed said Beijing’s influence has become stronger in recent years.
“This is more than say the same of India or Russia ... and of the US, Germany, France and the UK,” the Pew study found.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS