Poll shows 22% Australians trust Chinese President Xi Jinping, PM Modi gets more votes

With tensions between Canberra and Beijing currently at an all-time high, trust in China is at the lowest level ever recorded, according to a poll by Lowy Institute. The survey says, only 23% of Australians trust China somewhat or a lot 'to act responsibly in the world', a 29-point fall since 2018. 84% and 82% of Australians trust the United Kingdom and Japan respectively, which is also the highest and second among the lot. Meanwhile, the United States has barely managed to secure a majority with only 51% of Australians showing their trust in the country. Less than half of Australians trust India (45%), a 14-point drop from 2018, and even fewer trust Indonesia (36%), a 16-point fall from 2017. Only 24% of Australians say they trust Russia, according to the poll. 

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"Trust in our largest trading partner — China — has declined precipitously. Confidence in China’s leader Xi Jinping has fallen even further. Almost all Australians would like to see diversification in order to reduce our economic dependence on China, and most would support imposing travel and financial sanctions on Chinese officials associated with human rights abuses," Lowy Institute executive director Michael Fullilove wrote on its website.

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The poll also found that confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping has fallen drastically with only 22% of Australians expressing confidence in him, eight points drop from 2019. Meanwhile, 30% of Australians expressed confidence in US President Donald Trump 'to do the right thing regarding world affairs', a five-point increase from 2019. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tops the list of leaders again, with 87% of Australians expressing confidence in her, while 73% expressed confidence in Japan's PM Shinzo Abe. The UK PM Boris Johnson garnered the confidence of 55% of Australian, while Indian PM Narendra Modi got the support of 42% Australians. 

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Democracies in the world

When it comes to democracies around the world, an overwhelming 90% of Australians feel the United Kingdom is a democracy, while only 81% of them say the same about the United States. 79% of Australians recognise Japan as a democracy. Meanwhile, a majority of Australians, 57% see India as a democracy, while only 10% agree that China is a democracy. 

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