(BGF) – According to The Economist, a global survey covered 44 countries, 11 of them in Asia, which was done by the Pew Research Centre, an American polling organization, revealed that Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam see China as the biggest security threat to their country.
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Asian fears of China’s rise Jittery neighbours
July 19, 2014
(Photo Credit: A number of residents in Ho Chi Minh City launched a peaceful demonstration and parade against China’s illegal operation of an oil rig in Vietnam’s waters on May 10, 2014, by TuoitreNews)
For all the alarmist commentary in the international press, it still seems incredible that China’s tiffs with its neighbours about mainly tiny, uninhabited rocks in the South and East China Seas might lead to conflict. But a survey published this week by the Pew Research Centre, an American polling organisation, suggests that many of the people most directly affected, those living in Asia, fear just that.
The global survey covered 44 countries, 11 of them in Asia. Predictably, those countries with the most active territorial disputes with China were the most alarmed. In the Philippines, for example, which is engaged in a number of tussles with China in the South China Sea, 93% of respondents were “concerned” about the possibility of conflict.
In Vietnam, in whose claimed territorial waters China operated an oil rig from May until this week, the number was 84%. And in Japan, which administers the Senkaku islands, claimed by China as the Diaoyus, 85% are worried. Even in South Korea and Malaysia, which on the whole are on good terms with China, the figures are 83% and 66% respectively. In China itself 62% are afraid: its rise frightens even its own people.
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