Hundreds of people gathered at the Auckland Sky Tower on 22 January, 2023, to watch the lion dance, cultural performances, and calligraphy demonstrations in celebration of the Lunar New Year. Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia
A new survey shows most New Zealanders believe it is more important now for Aotearoa to build partnerships with Asian countries than it was five years ago.
Close to two-thirds of respondents said New Zealand should invest energy and resources into building those partnerships, according to Asia New Zealand Foundation's annual Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples (2022) survey.
They rated China (72 percent) as the most important Asian country for New Zealand's future, followed by Japan (66 percent), Singapore (53 percent), India (52 percent) and South Korea (48 percent).
Executive director Simon Draper said while China remained a central part of how New Zealanders viewed Asia, other countries like Japan, Singapore and South Korea were starting to receive greater attention.
"Our survey data tells us that New Zealanders see value in New Zealand maintaining a range of partnerships across Asia, and that it's important to have a long-term vision and plan for guiding our engagement with the world's most dynamic region."
Shifting threats
While more New Zealanders overall considered China to be a threat (37 percent) rather than a friend (30 percent), the 2022 survey results represent a warming of sentiment compared to the findings in the previous two years, with 58 percent viewing China as a threat in 2021 and 35 percent in 2020.
New Zealanders also feel warmer towards many other Asian countries than they did in 2021, including South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. Japan, Singapore and South Korea are considered our closest friends in Asia, while Russia and North Korea are regarded as the most threatening countries.
Seventy-two percent of New Zealanders considered Russia to be threatening, up from 45 percent in 2021. The report said the significant shift in sentiment followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. North Korea was rated as a threat by 69 percent, an increase of five percentage points from 2021.
Overall, New Zealanders continued to consider Asia the second-most important region to New Zealand's future, after Australia.
Food, travel, and commerce were New Zealanders' top Asia interests. Nearly four out of five New Zealanders (79 percent) said both teaching students about Asia and offering Asian language courses were at least somewhat important for New Zealand's education system.
"In addition to trade, the last few years have seen New Zealanders' Asia interests grow in a range of other areas - entertainment, sports, innovation, and culture - a trend likely to continue as the global centre of gravity for these sectors moves increasingly towards Asia," Draper said.
Climate change, fake news and disinformation, a global economic downturn, and cyber-attacks were the top potential threats New Zealanders worried about. They were also concerned about terrorism and other violent extremism, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The report presents the results from a survey of 2323 New Zealanders aged 15 years and over conducted from 4 to 30 November 2022. The survey results have been weighted to be representative of New Zealanders by age, gender, ethnicity and geography.