As Li Qiang visits, ‘persistent duality’ of Australia’s China thinking on show

Nearly three-quarters of Australians view China as a security threat, according to the annual ACRI/BIDA poll, which surveyed more than 2,000 people between April and May.

Just over half also raised concerns about foreign interference and investment from China. A similar percentage have expressed this view across the four-year history of the poll from the University of Technology Sydney’s Australia-China Relations Institute and Centre for Business Intelligence and Data Analytics.

This “persistent duality in public thinking on the Australia-China relationship” has remained “even as anxieties about China get even more pronounced”, Elena Collinson, a research analysis manager at ACRI and one of the poll’s two authors, told This Week in Asia.

“This seems to point to a pragmatism in Australian public opinion, an acknowledgement that a working relationship remains preferable to no relationship and a recognition that some dimensions of the bilateral relationship continue to deliver gains for Australia.”

The poll also found a six-point jump in the percentage of Australians who believe the Australia-China relationship will improve over the next three years. However, around half still foresee a potential military conflict with China during that same time frame.

Li’s four-day visit this week will be the first by a Chinese premier since 2017. He is set to join a leaders’ meeting in Canberra, as well as visiting Adelaide and Perth.

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All eyes will also be on whether Wang Wang and Fu Ni – the only pandas in the southern hemisphere – continue their stay at Adelaide Zoo after a 15-year loan from the China Wildlife Conservation Association expires at the end of