Relations with the US and China

Trust in global powers

In 2020, Australians are less trusting of most countries around the world than in the past. China is the clearest example: in the past two years, trust in China ‘to act responsibly in the world’ has more than halved, down from a majority (52%) saying they trusted China a great deal or somewhat in 2018 to only 23% saying the same in 2020, with nine-point fall this year. Australians typically place more trust in liberal democracies such as the United Kingdom and Japan, although that trust has also slipped compared with two years ago. The UK garners the highest level of trust from Australians, with 84% saying they trust the UK either a great deal or somewhat. Japan has recorded high levels of trust from the Australian people in recent years. In 2020, eight in ten Australians (82%) continue to trust Japan somewhat or a great deal ‘to act responsibly in the world’. There is a wide gap between Australians’ trust in the United Kingdom and Japan and their trust in the United States. Around half of Australians (51%) say they trust the United States a great deal or somewhat ‘to act responsibly in the world’, statistically unchanged from 2019. Many more Australians (61%) trusted the United States during President Donald Trump’s first year in office in 2017. In 2020, trust in the United States is 32 points lower than at the high point between 2009 and 2011 (83%), during President Barack Obama’s administration. Reports of rising Indian nationalism and protests against new Indian citizenship laws may have affected Australians’ levels of trust in India this year. Fewer than half of Australians (45%) trust India ‘to act responsibly in the world’, a 14-point drop from 2018. Closer to home, trust in Indonesia has also declined to its lowest point in Lowy Institute polling. Only a third of Australians (36%) trust Indonesia to act responsibly in the world, a 16-point fall from 2017. A mere 24% of Australians trust Russia to act responsibly in the world.

Relations with the US and China
Trust in global powers

Question

How much do you trust the following countries to act responsibly in the world?

This question was last asked in 2020.

United Kingdom

Japan

United States

India

Indonesia

Russia

China

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