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Speaker 1: I've got some new research from the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

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Speaker 1: More of us are seeing China as the threat. Last

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Speaker 1: year it's twenty eight percent of us. This year it's forty.

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Speaker 1: Here's the flip side. China's second only we think to

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Speaker 1: Japan as a place we need to invest more effort into.

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Speaker 1: So director of Victoria University's China Research Center, Jason Young's

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Speaker 1: with us, Jason Morning, Good morning. Perception always interests me.

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Speaker 1: Could it be something as simple as the Chinese fleet

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Speaker 1: of cruises coming into the Tasman Sea and US going, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: they look a bit dangerous, and all of a sudden

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Speaker 1: perception changes.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that's pretty much on the money. So

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Speaker 2: the mini poll, which is the sort of big jump

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Speaker 2: in threat perceptions towards China, happened in March, just after

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Speaker 2: the task force was in the Testman Fleet. And I think,

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Speaker 2: you know, for New Zealanders that have seen China grow,

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Speaker 2: seen it become a very powerful country, Senate's military grow,

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Speaker 2: but its military has always been very far away. Coming

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Speaker 2: into the Tasman Sea really changes, I think helped you.

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Speaker 1: So really nothing's actually changed apart from the headline, and

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Speaker 1: suddenly the same with America, isn't it. I mean, this

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Speaker 1: is Trump, isn't it. We think differently of America our

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Speaker 1: soul because of Trump, don't we.

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Speaker 2: Well, if you look back to the pole that was done,

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Speaker 2: the actual survey which was done in November, there was

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Speaker 2: actually an improvement in perceptions towards China. So the long

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Speaker 2: term trend was actually looking pretty good for China. There's

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Speaker 2: still high roughly third one third, one third. Threat perceptions

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Speaker 2: were up and friendlyiness perceptions were up, and then a

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Speaker 2: third of people didn't know. But it was really that

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Speaker 2: much poll that jumped up. And yeah, very similar for Trump.

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Speaker 2: I think it's no secret that when there's a Trump administration,

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Speaker 2: New Zealanders are more worried about the United States.

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Speaker 1: As far as US dealing or investing with China. Are

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Speaker 1: we walking in our own minds the same type rope

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Speaker 1: of government walks, and that is that you know, they

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Speaker 1: may have a view of the world that we don't

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Speaker 1: align ourselves with, but there are a very big economy

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Speaker 1: and we want to slice of that action, thank you

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Speaker 1: very much.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's a very complicated relationship in the

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Speaker 2: sense that New Zealanders, on all of the surveys have

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Speaker 2: very low trusts that China will do the right thing

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Speaker 2: in world affairs. It's down to about forteen percent of

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Speaker 2: people think that that will and there's also an aversion

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Speaker 2: to the authoritarian political system in China. But at the

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Speaker 2: same time, it's seen is very very important because it's

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Speaker 2: the largest parent Asia, half of the GDP of Asia,

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Speaker 2: and it's an important trade partner, which is important to

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Speaker 2: New Zealand interests. And I think that's just the reality

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Speaker 2: of the situation.

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Speaker 1: Jason, nice to talk to you, Jason Young, who's director

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Speaker 1: of Victoria University's New Zealand China Research Center. For more

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