I don’t think it’s entirely because of the 2019 propaganda campaign (about Xinjiang and just ramping up hostility in general). These lines were trending down since before then. And if you look at some countries in 2002, they didn’t have that much of a favourable opinion from the get go (like Germany or Japan). But in 2002, what did anyone have against China? Tiananmen wasn’t as politicised, Hong Kong was very fresh, and nobody really anticipated China would become the world’s richest country.
As far as Asian countries are concerned it probably has to do with the South China Sea stuff rather than Xinjiang or covid. South Korea peaked their favourable opinion around 2015 and it all went downhill after that. Which of course all of this has to do with propaganda (though regarding the SCS… I probably wouldn’t talk about that to someone living in the region because I don’t know that much about it). Japan is Japan, I don’t have much hope for their opinions. But both the cheap AND high-tech consumer electronics now come from China and not Japan anymore lol (which was also a reason to attack Japan in the 80s when they got that market). DJI (the drones) is Chinese, and most people don’t even know lol.
But I would also be interested in the link to check the whole list and see if I can hover over the lines to see the years in detail.
Of course as principled communists we all know the answer to such questions is that the Chinese people (or any other country) have the right to determine their path of development without outside interference, and we won’t participate in giving legitimacy to hostile actions against peaceful countries.
I don’t think it’s entirely because of the 2019 propaganda campaign (about Xinjiang and just ramping up hostility in general). These lines were trending down since before then. And if you look at some countries in 2002, they didn’t have that much of a favourable opinion from the get go (like Germany or Japan). But in 2002, what did anyone have against China? Tiananmen wasn’t as politicised, Hong Kong was very fresh, and nobody really anticipated China would become the world’s richest country.
As far as Asian countries are concerned it probably has to do with the South China Sea stuff rather than Xinjiang or covid. South Korea peaked their favourable opinion around 2015 and it all went downhill after that. Which of course all of this has to do with propaganda (though regarding the SCS… I probably wouldn’t talk about that to someone living in the region because I don’t know that much about it). Japan is Japan, I don’t have much hope for their opinions. But both the cheap AND high-tech consumer electronics now come from China and not Japan anymore lol (which was also a reason to attack Japan in the 80s when they got that market). DJI (the drones) is Chinese, and most people don’t even know lol.
But I would also be interested in the link to check the whole list and see if I can hover over the lines to see the years in detail.
Of course as principled communists we all know the answer to such questions is that the Chinese people (or any other country) have the right to determine their path of development without outside interference, and we won’t participate in giving legitimacy to hostile actions against peaceful countries.