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Trust in global powersTrust in global powers
About the author
Natasha Kassam
Natasha Kassam was Director of the Lowy Institute's Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program from 2019 to 2022, directing the annual Lowy Institute Poll and researching China’s politics, Taiwan, and Australia-China relations.
The year 2020 has been marked by disasters, from Australia’s bushfire crisis to the global Covid-19 pandemic. In such uncertain times, 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%) in 2018 to only 23% saying they trust China in 2020. This is a nine-point fall from 2019 for those that trust China somewhat or a great deal.
This distrust was further reflected in the Lowy Institute’s COVIDpoll conducted in April, in which only 31% of Australians say China has handled the Covid-19 outbreak very or fairly well to date. When thinking about the way China handled the outbreak, 68% say they feel ‘less favourable towards China’s system of government’.
Australians typically place more trust in liberal democracies such as the United Kingdom and Japan, although that 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. After a year that has seen a new prime minister, the departure from the European Union and mistakes in handling the pandemic, the number who trust the UK a great deal ‘to act responsibly in the world’ has fallen 21 points compared with 2018, to 24%.
Many Australians are unimpressed with the UK’s handling of Covid-19, with only 30% of the respondents to COVIDpoll saying the UK has done very or fairly well so far.
Japan has recorded high levels of trust from the Australian people in recent years. In 2020, eight in ten Australians (82%) trust Japan somewhat or a great deal to act responsibly in the world. But only 22% say they trust Japan a great deal, an 11-point fall from 2018.
Australians’ trust in China to act responsibly in the world has more than halved in the past two years
There is a wide gap between Australians’ trust in the United Kingdom and Japan and their trust in the United States. Around half (51%) say they trust the United States a great deal or somewhat to act responsibly in the world, unchanged from 2019. More Australians (61%) trusted the United States during President 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 the administration of President Barack Obama.
According to Australians, the United States’ response to Covid-19 has been even worse than China’s. In April’s COVIDpoll, only one in ten (10%)say the United States is doing very or fairly well in handling the Covid-19 outbreak, which ranks the United States at the bottom of a list of six countries.
Reports of rising Indian nationalism and protests against new Indian citizenship laws may have affected levels of trust in India this year. Fewer than half (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 (36%) express trust in Indonesia to act responsibly in the world, a 16-point fall from 2017.
Russia sits with China as one of the least-trusted global powers for Australians, with only 24% saying they trust Russia to act responsibly in the world. A mere 2% of Australians say they have a great deal of trust in Russia.
