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VOA: Nearly Half of Australians View China as a Military Threat

While Australian Prime Minister Gillard is on an official visit to China for four days, from April 25 to 28, on April 25, the Lowy Institute, a leading international think tank, released a new poll. According to the poll, 44% of the respondents believed that China may become a military threat to Australia within the next 20 years; 87% of the respondents believed that, if China were to start a fight with the U.S., Australia might get involved because it is a close ally of the U.S.; 52% of the respondents said that they would support Australia to fight alongside the U.S. if a conflict explodes between North Korea and South Korea due to a North Korean provocation. 

Although Gillard recently criticized China’s human right record when Jia Qinglin, a Politburo standing committee member and Chair of The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference visited Australia, 58% of the respondents think Australia has not done enough to pressure Beijing on human rights.

Source: Voice of America, April 25, 2011
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20110425-poll-shows-Australian-see-China-as-Military-Threat-120611044.html