Koreans distrust Chinese more than Russians, Japanese

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Koreans distrust Chinese more than Russians, Japanese

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a meeting in Beijing, China on Feb. 4, 2022. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a meeting in Beijing, China on Feb. 4, 2022. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
Koreans distrust China even more than Japan or Russia, according to a JoongAng Ilbo survey conducted ahead of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries.  
 
In the latest poll results released Wednesday, 90.2 percent of respondents said they didn't consider China a reliable partner, the highest level of distrust for any country. 
 
The survey was jointly commissioned by the JoongAng Ilbo and the Seoul-based East Asia Institute (EAI) and conducted by Hankook Research. It questioned 1,028 adults between July 21 and Aug. 8 and has a confidence level of 95 percent with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
 
Respondents were asked how much they trusted six countries — the United States, China, Japan, Russia, Canada and Australia — and in a separate question, how much they distrusted them.
 
According to the poll, trust in the United States was highest at 85.1 percent, followed by Canada at 65.6 percent, Australia at 63.8 percent and Japan at 13.9 percent. Only 8.2 percent said they trusted China. Russia came in as the least trusted country at 5.1 percent.
 
On the separate question about distrust, China topped the list at 90.2 percent, followed by Russia at 87.3 percent, Japan at 84.3 percent, Australia at 23.9, Canada at 22.4 percent and the United States at 14.2 percent.  
 
Such public sentiment toward China is likely to be an obstacle in efforts to strengthen friendship and cooperation between the two countries, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties Wednesday.  
 
 
Since the establishment of "friendly and cooperative" ties in 1992, Korea and China have upgraded their relationship step by step. In 1998, they formed a "collaborative partnership for the 21st century"; in 2003 a "comprehensive cooperative partnership"; and a "strategic cooperative partnership" in 2008. This reflects the scope of cooperation gradually increasing as the countries became more important to each other. Since 2004, China has been Korea's largest trading partner.  
 
Conversely, distrust in China appears to be getting stronger in Korea.
 
In a similar poll conducted in 2018, 77.2 percent of respondents said they distrusted China, and over the past four years the rate has risen annually.  
 
Respondents who said they trusted China decreased from 19 percent in 2018 to 8.2 percent in just four years.  
 
Korea's high trust in the United States bodes well for the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's focus on upgrading the bilateral relationship to a "comprehensive strategic alliance."
 
Confidence in Russia has plummeted following its invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. According to a 2021 poll, 32.7 percent of respondents said they trusted Russia, prior to the Ukrainian crisis, while 48.5 percent said they distrusted Moscow. In the latest poll, only 5.1 percent trusted Russia and 87.3 percent distrusted it.   
 
There is a high level of distrust of Japan in Korea, but trust in Tokyo has been gradually on the rise since 2020.
 
In a 2020 poll, just 4.4 percent of respondents said they trusted Japan, amid historical disputes stemming from Japanese colonial rule and a trade spat. This rose to 6.4 percent in 2021 and doubled this year to 13.9 percent. The level of distrust decreased from 93.3 percent in 2020 to 88 percent last year and by another 3.7 percentage points this year.  
 
While there is public distrust of both China and Japan, Koreans impressions of the Chinese and Japanese differ drastically.  
 
The latest poll evaluated Koreans' impression of the Chinese and Japanese in seven categories: friendliness, flexibility, planning, boldness, creativity, inclusiveness and peacefulness.
 
The poll showed that 77.5 percent of respondents found Japanese people to be "friendly," while only 6 percent said they were unfriendly.  
 
In contrast, just 12 percent of respondents found Chinese to be friendly.  
 
Out of the seven categories, the Chinese scored highest for their "boldness" at 64.8 percent. In comparison, just 24.3 percent of respondents found the Japanese to be bold.  
 
The Japanese came in higher than the Chinese in all other categories, especially scoring high for "planning," with 64.8 percent compared to 18.5 percent for the Chinese.  

BY SARAH KIM, JEONG JIN-WOO [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
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