Savio Rodrigues for Sunday Guardian Live
Xi Jinping’s popularity is diminishing globally. China, however, people still favour, because of its economic strengths, though with a bit of scepticism.
With each passing day and with the added strain of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more nations are reassessing their relationship with China.
It appears that China is no longer the favoured partner to tango with on the global political stage. In fact, China’s missteps could lead to a fall of nations dancing with this hidden dragon.
I remember in 2019 analysing the Pew Research Centre Survey on China. The study was titled “Attitude Towards China”. The research revealed that around the world people were divided in their opinions on China.
Reportedly in the survey, a median of 40% across 34 countries surveyed had a favourable view of China, while a median of 41% had an unfavourable view of China. However, China got the most positive views from Russia, Nigeria and Lebanon, while it got the most negative views from Japan, Sweden and Canada.
The most intriguing data was that it was noticed that the higher a country’s perceived level of corruption, as designated by Transparency International, the more favourably that nation tends to view China.
Interestingly, investment from China is only weakly related to views on China across the countries included in the survey. Despite pouring hundreds of dollars into the Belt and Road Initiative, especially in emerging economies, the side of capital investment or construction contracts funded by China in a country is only weakly related to that country’s overall views of China. Indonesia, for example, had received more than $47 billion for capital investments and projects from China since 2005, but attitudes towards China are split evenly, with 36% favourable and 36% unfavourable.
Post Covid-19, most global nations are no longer favouring China, they are merely tolerating it.
Click here to read more