My Take | Surveys show gullibility of Australians over China
- The Australia Institute argues for a reset of relations, but Canberra has already decided to take the side of Uncle Sam, whose global hegemony is not open to debate among ordinary voters in the Anglo-American sphere
As it turns out, Taiwanese take a far more realistic view of the prospect of an invasion by mainland China, compared to Australians, many of whom also think Beijing wants to invade down under as well.
Those are some of the results of a survey conducted by the Canberra-based Australia Institute under its international and security affairs programme. The results would have been laughable if it were not so dangerous with all that war talk coming out of Australia.
Two surveys were conducted this month involving 1,003 adults living in Australia, and 1,002 in Taiwan. More Australians think China will invade Australia “soon” than there are Taiwanese who think mainland China will invade Taiwan “soon”. Oh dear!
Almost one in four Australians think China will attack Taiwan soon, while just one in 20 Taiwanese think the mainland will attack the island soon. And nearly one in 10 Australians think China will attack Australia soon, while just one in 20 Taiwanese think China will attack Australia soon.
Roughly the same numbers of people – 68 per cent in Taiwan and 70 per cent in Australia – agree that Taiwan should become independent if it can maintain peaceful relations with the mainland.
However, Taiwanese are divided – 44 per cent agree, 40 per cent disagree – about whether their island should declare independence even if Beijing decides to attack as a consequence. By contrast, most Australians (63 per cent) agree Taiwan should declare independence regardless of the consequence as opposed to 11 per cent who disagree.