Rising China worries Aussies: poll

By Li Jing

More and more Australians view China's economic growth positively, but think that China will become a military threat to Australia within 20 years, a survey showed Monday.

According to the 2010 foreign policy poll conducted by Sydney-based Lowy Institute, 46 percent of those surveyed believe China will be a threat, with 19 percent of them rating the possibility as "very likely," the Courier-Mail daily reported.

Fifty-five percent of the 1,001 people polled consider China the world's top economic power, compared with 32 percent choosing the US, the survey revealed.

Although China's economy ranks No. 4 worldwide, behind the EU, the US and Japan, it is Australia's No. 1 trading partner.

Despite 73 percent of those polled seeing China's growth as good for Australia, 57 percent said the government had allowed too much investment from China, and 69 percent identified China's potential aspirations to dominate Asia.

Though Australians see Washington's economic power as waning, the number of peo-ple strongly backing the Anzus Treaty (the Australia, New Zealand, US Security Treaty) and a military alliance with Washington was 86 percent, up from 63 percent three years ago.

According to wikipedia.org, the Anzus Treaty was signed in 1984 but no longer applies between the US and New Zealand following a dispute over visiting rights for nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered ships of the US Navy in New Zealand ports.

Fergus Hanson, project director at the Lowy Poll, said the results showed that people are positive about China's economic growth but fearful of its military strength.

"The two sides of the China relationship play in to the rising support for the US alliance that is evident in the poll," he told the Courier-Mail.

Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor at the National Defense University, told the Global Times that multiple factors are behind the result.

"Australian people's wariness of China's rise might be stimulated by the recent trial of Rio Tinto employees, and the multilateral ties among countries in the 'little NATO' in the Asia-Pacific region, namely Australia, Japan and the US. One possible mission of their alliance was to set up defensive lines against China's military entry into the Pacific Ocean."

Peng Guangqian, a military strategist at the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences of the PLA, told the Global Times that the objectivity and accuracy of the survey needed to be verified.

"This poll has exerted a role in agitating the alleged 'China threat' theory to a large extent," Peng said. "China's characteristic modes of rise in the military and economic spheres are quite different from those of other hegemonic powers. Therefore, some countries need to alter their criteria and reevaluate the development of China."

Agencies contributed to this story