The Chinese Communist Party has used this wave of the Epidemic to vigorously pursue vaccine diplomacy. But Southeast Asians still prefer to side with the United States.
The Wuhan pneumonia epidemic is spreading worldwide and has so far resulted in at least 160 million diagnoses and 2,239,000 deaths. The Chinese Communist Party took the opportunity to launch vaccine diplomacy and even used it to get Guyana to cancel its Taiwan office. However, a survey by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute’s Center for East Asian Studies in Singapore found that while 44.2 percent of Southeast Asians, far more than Europe, the United States, and Japan, believe that the Chinese Communist Party provided the most help during the epidemic, 61.5 percent of Southeast Asians would choose the United States if they were forced to choose between the United States and China.
The Isak Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore conducted a survey of 1,032 academics, government officials and businesspeople in 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from Nov. 18 last year to Jan. 10 this year. Asked which country was most helpful to Southeast Asia during the epidemic, 44.2 percent of respondents said China, 18.2 percent said Japan, 10.3 percent said the European Union and 9.6 percent said the United States.
China has been active in reaching vaccine agreements with countries in the Southeast Asian region. China’s Kexing (Sinovac) is the only vaccine obtained in Indonesia and is preparing a mass vaccination program. The Philippines and Malaysia also received 25 million and 14 million doses of vaccine, respectively, from the Chinese company last month. Foreign Minister Wang Yi also pledged 300,000 doses to Myanmar in January.
Nonetheless, if forced to choose a position between the U.S. and China, 61.5 percent of respondents said they would choose the U.S. over the Chinese Communist Party. Support for the U.S. among these Southeast Asian elites is up 7.9 percent from last year’s survey.
76.3 percent of respondents said China is the most influential economic power in the region, and more than 80 percent in Laos, Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar and Cambodia even believe China is more influential than countries and regions such as the United States, the European Union and Japan. However, 72.3 percent of those who believe China’s influence is greatest are “concerned about China’s growing regional economic influence.
Similarly, 49.1 percent of respondents believe that the most influential political and strategic power in Southeast Asia is China, ahead of those who believe it is the United States (30.4 percent). However, 88.6 percent of those who believe China is the most influential are concerned about this. 46.3 percent believe that the Chinese Communist Party intends to turn Southeast Asia into its sphere of influence.
Southeast Asians also distrust the Chinese Communist Party the most among the major global powers. 63% of Southeast Asia’s elite say they have “no confidence” or “little confidence” that the Chinese Communist Party can do the right thing.
According to a report by the Issac Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, Southeast Asians’ confidence deficit in the CCP has risen. The percentage of people who have no confidence in the CCP was 60.4% in the same period last year. The political and economic influence of the Chinese Communist Party in Southeast Asia is causing alarm rather than good feelings among the people there. Most Southeast Asians fear that the CCP’s political and economic influence, combined with its military power, could be used to threaten the interests of Southeast Asian countries and erode their sovereignty.
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