Asia doesn’t trust Clinton or Trump: find out why from our exclusive survey
Three in four people in the region would pick Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump as US president, according to our survey. But read the fine print and you might struggle to describe either as a ‘winner’
People in Asia clearly favour Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the US presidential race, but scratch beneath the surface of a South China Morning Post poll released this weekend, and you get the inkling the preference is more a case of cold hard pragmatism, rather than adulation or even trust.
The survey of 3,614 people in China, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea found 76 per cent supported the Democratic nominee, with the controversial Republican Donald Trump scoring 24 per cent (there were only two options). But in China, the scores were more even, with support for Clinton at 61 per cent.
The statistically representative poll, conducted from October 12 to 23, also found three out four people would rather invite the former US Secretary of State home for dinner. Fifty-four per cent said Clinton was better for Asia, 17 per cent said Trump was better, the rest said neither, while 54 per cent said Clinton was better for their own countries, 16 per cent said Trump was better and the rest said neither. Sixty-four per cent said the world would be safer under a Clinton presidency, compared to 33 per cent who said the same of a Trump presidency.
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But when asked to select from 17 personal attributes that best described the candidates, only 12 per cent said Clinton was “honest”, just three percentage points higher than Trump’s score. Respondents were allowed to select as many options as they wanted.
Twenty per cent said Clinton was “believable”, marginally higher than the eight per cent who said Trump was believable.
“The appeal of Clinton for Asians is that she represents continuity and dependability,” said David Black, the managing director and owner of Singapore-based polling firm Blackbox Research, which the Post commissioned to conduct the survey.