You know what that reminds me of? Finland and Sweden.
6 years ago, less than 25% of Finns supported Finland's decision to join NATO.
How did this end in 2022?
Interestingly, the same survey shows an increase in the number of Finns who see Russia as “a negative influence”, while support for NATO membership was also decreasing. The situation ended up quite different from what the surveys pointed out, don't you think?
By the way, look at the rejection of his own source: Indonesians' view of China worsens compared to 11 years ago. While rejection of the West is also on the rise, China's is trumping it.
In the second source that you posted yourself, look at the indicative:
More than 60% of respondents would prefer to see Southeast Asia aligned with the US rather than China, up from 53.6% in 2020. That said, more than 95% still believe ASEAN can avoid allying with either of the two. powers and more than 60% of respondents said they expect US-China trade tensions to ease in the coming years.
Tensions have not decreased, on the contrary, they are increasing.
Even more in the source itself:
Report shows growing confidence in US and anxiety over China
The ISEAS survey found that trust in the US as a strategic partner has grown dramatically among respondents, from 34.9% in 2020 to 55.4% in 2021.
China was the only major power to see a growing level of distrust among Southeast Asia, with 63% saying they had little or no confidence that Beijing "will contribute to global peace, security, prosperity and governance", up from 51.5 % in 2019. But most of this distrust of China was due to concerns that it might abuse its economic and military power, rather than doubts about its leadership, capability or reliability.
In the third source:
But while China's growth has left an impression on Southeast Asian elites, it hasn't created much confidence. The survey report found that the most trusted major power in Southeast Asia was Japan, which commanded an overall confidence level of 54.2%, although that number has declined significantly from 68.2% in 2021, followed closely by the US. , in which 52.8% of respondents expressed confidence.
The numbers for China were almost the opposite. Most respondents (58.1%) expressed “little trust” (33.3%) or “no trust” (24.8%) in China to “do the right thing” to contribute to peace, security, prosperity and global governance. Of those who expressed distrust towards China, 49.6% expressed fear that China could use economic and military power to threaten their country's interests and sovereignty. Nearly a quarter said they did not consider China "a responsible or credible power".
The funny thing is that this source contrasts heavily with the growing role of the Chinese economy in Asia compared to the other two sources you cited yourself.
More from your source:
In last year's report, the most striking finding was the widespread preference that the region's elites expressed for the US over China. When asked what power they would hypothetically align themselves with, 61.5% of respondents in 2021 said they would prefer to align themselves with the US, compared to 38.5% with China. This year's findings were broadly similar, with 57% expressing a preference for aligning with the US rather than 43% for China.
As some observers noted last year, however, this finding was – and is – a bit misleading, as the preferred option for ASEAN countries was to avoid making such a choice in the first place. Elsewhere, when asked how ASEAN should better manage Sino-US competition, only 11.1% of respondents recommended that Southeast Asian nations choose a side between one of the two major powers. Some 26.6 percent said the bloc should avoid making such a choice, while 46.1 percent preferred the more active approach of "strengthening ASEAN's resilience and unity to ward off pressure from the two great powers." (Whether that would be possible remains in doubt; more than 70% of respondents said the Southeast Asian bloc was “slow and ineffective and therefore cannot handle fluid political and economic developments.”)
As for the fourth and last source, I don't know why I posted it, the article is clearly focused on what the Singaporean politician thinks they should have in a bipolar world, he doesn't have the word for all Asian nations, while here the case is only with deference to Indonesia.
You can believe what you want, I untouchably maintain my position that many indirectly supported the US and will speak openly about neutrality, recent cases abound.
