Opinion of China in advanced economies sours 'precipitously' under Xi - Pew

 ... worsening amid concerns including human rights and military power ...

By James Pomfret

September 29, 20224:38 PM GMT+8

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/opinion-china-advanced-economies-sours-precipitously-under-xi-pew-2022-09-29/

A visitor takes pictures in front of a screen displaying an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, China September 3, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo

BEIJING/HONG KONG, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Public opinion towards China in the United States and other advanced economies has turned "precipitously more negative" under President Xi Jinping, according to a global survey by the Pew Research Center.

Xi, 69, is widely expected to win a precedent-breaking third five-year term as leader at a Communist Party congress that begins in Beijing on Oct. 16, securing his status as China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. read more

While China's economic rise and its investments were seen as a positive for some Latin American, Middle Eastern and African countries, economic competition with China was seen as a "serious problem" in advanced economies like Japan, South Korea, the United States and Australia, according to Pew.

The survey, published on Wednesday, found that unfavourable views of China in developed economies had hovered in a relatively narrow band between 2002-2017, before worsening amid concerns including human rights and military power, with some of the sharpest changes between 2019 and 2020, Washington-based Pew said.

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The shift in opinion was triggered partly by perceptions of China's handling of COVID-19, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, as well as a trade war with the United States, aggressive foreign policy and a military buildup in the South China Sea.

In the United States, 82% of respondents this year expressed an "unfavourable opinion" of China, up from 79% in 2020.

The percentage of those who said they had "no confidence" in Xi to do the "right thing regarding world affairs" was 87% in South Korea in 2022, up from 29% in 2015. In Britain, the figure increased to 70% in 2022 from 44% in 2014.

China signals no let-up in its aggressive diplomacy under Xi

 China signalled on Thursday no let-up in its combative approach to foreign policy in a third term for ...

2 minute read   September 29, 20221:16 PM GMT+8Last Updated 3 hours ago

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-signals-no-let-up-its-aggressive-diplomacy-2022-09-29/

A Chinese flag flutters outside the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing, China February 24, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

BEIJING, Sept 29 (Reuters) - China signalled on Thursday no let-up in its combative approach to foreign policy in a third term for Xi Jinping as leader despite criticism from many Western diplomats that the so-called Wolf Warrior stance has been counterproductive.

As relations with the West have soured over issues from trade and human rights to COVID-19, Chinese diplomats have often been confrontational on the public stage, including on social media, a stridency that some critics see as intended for a domestic audience that nonetheless hurts its foreign ties.

"We Chinese will not capitulate. We will not sit and do nothing while our country's interests are being harmed," Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said in response to a Reuters question at a Thursday news conference to discuss Chinese diplomacy in the decade since Xi assumed power.

"Going forward, Chinese diplomats will continue to overcome all obstacles, and always be the devoted guardians of the interests of our country and our people," said Ma, who is considered to be among contenders to replace Wang Yi as foreign minister in an upcoming leadership reshuffle.

Xi is poised to break with precedent and secure a third leadership term at next month's once-in-five-years congress of the ruling Communist Party.

Xi has urged Chinese diplomats to have more "fighting spirit", an instruction that has seen many Chinese officials take to social media platforms including Twitter, which is blocked in China, with an aggression that has come to be known as "Wolf Warrior" diplomacy, after a patriotic movie franchise.

A global survey released this week by the Washington-based Pew Research Center found that public opinion towards China in the United States and other advanced economies had turned "precipitously more negative" under Xi.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-signals-no-let-up-its-aggressive-diplomacy-2022-09-29/

China Tightens Grip Over Waters That Carry $3 Trillion in Trade

China Is Winning the Silent War
to Dominate the South China Sea

By Nguyen Xuan Quynh, Andreo Calonzo,
Philip J. Heijmans, Hannah Dormido and Adrian Leung
July 11, 2019

China Is Winning the Silent War to Dominate the South China Sea (bloomberg.com)

Standing captive on the bow of his boat, hands clasped tightly behind his head, Vietnamese fishing trawler captain Tran Van Nhan and his crew were told to stay quiet and look away as Chinese sailors wielding electric prods stole their catch.

The unreported incident last month was the first time Nhan had been caught by China’s Coast Guard since it stepped up patrols in contested areas of the South China Sea a few years back. Six Chinese officials in blue uniforms boarded his tiny trawler from a 3,000-ton armored patrol ship to tell him to stop fishing in waters that had supported his forefathers for generations.

Caught in the Middle

Fishermen encounter Chinese vessels in disputed areas several miles from their home bases

Hometown of

fisherman

Tran Van Nhan

and his crew

Filipino fishermen

say they are scared

to go back to this spot

because of run-ins

with Chinese vessels

PHILIPPINES

Paracel

Islands

Zambales

Tam Quang

Scarborough

Shoal

South China

Sea

The Vietnamese crew

say this is where the

Chinese vessel stole

their catch

Filipino fishermen

Job Dalisaymo

and Jorge Limuardo’s

hometown

VIETNAM

Spratlys

200 mi

200 km

Source: Natural Earth

“They said ‘This is China’s water. You are not allowed to go fishing here. If you continue to do this, your net will be cut and your boat will be taken to China and you will be punished,’” Nhan, 43, said while sitting on his trawler as it docked in Tam Quang, a small fishing commune in the central Vietnam province of Quang Nam.

Tran Van Nhan on his fishing trawler. Photographer: Maika Elan/Bloomberg

Nhan’s crew lost everything it had worked for days to catch—just over two tons of dried squid valued at some $10,000, roughly four times the average Vietnamese annual income. There was nothing to do but return home. “The crew was terrified and didn’t have any spirit left to continue fishing,” he said.

Fishermen like Nhan are on the front lines of Asia’s most complex territorial dispute, which involves six claimants and outside powers like the U.S. with an interest in protecting a waterway that carries more than $3 trillion in trade each year. While many incidents go unreported, China’s investments in patrolling the South China Sea have given it a leg up in the race to secure energy and fishing resources that account for about a tenth of the global catch.

Maritime Minefield

Sites of reported clashes between fishermen and Chinese government vessels, 2010-2019

CHINA

TAIWAN

LAOS

South China

Sea

Philippine

Sea

Bay of

Bengal

THAILAND

VIETNAM

CAMBODIA

PHILIPPINES

MALAYSIA

INDONESIA

500 mi

500 km

Sources: Natural Earth, China Power Project by the Center for Strategic and International Studies

“You can call it a silent war,” said Le Hong Hiep, a fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. The Chinese “are contesting waters. There is violence. It happens all the time.”

While China appears to be the biggest offender due to its size and resources, it’s not alone in seeking to protect fishing grounds as stocks get depleted and rules remain lax. Other claimants such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam have taken action against fishing crews from China and other nations, sometimes even making a show of destroying vessels that were impounded.

“Not only China, but also generally there is a growing recognition by regional governments of the pertinent need to scale up efforts to safeguard their maritime rights and interests, not least fisheries,” said Collin Koh Swee Lean, research fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Several high-profile incidents in recent months have spotlighted the increased dangers of fishing in the South China Sea. In March, Vietnam accused a Chinese coast guard vessel of sinking a fishing boat near the Paracel Islands. Then last month a Chinese vessel collided with a Philippine trawler near the islands further to the south, leaving 22 Filipino fishermen stranded at sea.

China Is Winning the Silent War to Dominate the South China Sea (bloomberg.com)