China loses trust internationally over coronavirus handling

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

China loses trust internationally over coronavirus handling

YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project shows most people believe China was not transparent

Patrick Wintour and Tobi Thomas
Tue 27 Oct 2020 14.30 GMT

China appears to have comprehensively lost the international battle for hearts and minds over its handling of coronavirus with most people believing it was responsible for the start of the outbreak and was not transparent about the problem at the outset.

The findings come from the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project, a survey of 26,000 people in 25 countries, designed with the Guardian.

It is the widest survey of global public opinion on China’s handling of the pandemic, and the overwhelmingly negative attitude will disappoint Chinese diplomats, who have expended huge energy to deflect blame and paint the country as altruistically helping others to recover.

Overall, the poll suggests there is a receptive global audience for the next US president, if he chooses, to construct an international alliance to challenge China’s growing political dominance, and to question the moral values of its leadership. There is no sense in the findings, however, that the US would be able to exploit its handling of the crisis to take on that leadership role.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/27/china-loses-trust-internationally-over-coronavirus-handling

[exboyfil]

1. Seems we have experience with totalitarian regimes fumbling

their pandemic response as well.

[soryang]

2. more countries take a positive view of China than not

Of course, they typically aren't the NATO countries, or other US allies. It is likely that the large number of Chinese tourists in Europe brought the coronavirus there.

The notation concerning Japan is interesting because of its historic antagonism with China. Typically in the UN General Assembly, countries such as the US and UK have an uphill battle getting the assembly to approve measures China opposes. Even if countries took a wary view of China's actions or influence, they prefer not to jeopardize the economic advantages that accrue when having a positive relationship with China. Countries like Vietnam and Indonesia are not going to join the so called quad short of being forced to make an undesired choice by an actual outbreak of armed conflict. On the other hand in the existing alignment, countries like Japan and India are not reluctant to do so. South Korea won't join the quad under the current administration.

I think it's a misnomer to try to present the picture that the world is against China. The US is in fact having difficulty constructing an "international alliance to challenge China's growing political dominance." Some East Asian countries prefer to remain strategically ambiguous with respect to alignment with China and the US in order to maximize their diplomatic leverage. I think the pressure to force countries to take sides has negative effects that the current administrations of the UK and US are simply indifferent to, with their condescending view of the PRC generally speaking. This approach is not very subtle.