(AmericanProsperity.com) – A recent survey was conducted showing that most Southeast Asians would choose China over the United States if they were forced to choose a side. Some countries do feel somewhat threatened by Beijing and those countries are still pulling for Washington.
The survey was conducted by the Singapore-based think tank ASEAN Studies Centre and all of the people who responded to the survey were from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; the majority of the respondents were from Indonesia and Singapore.
China is now beating the United States when it comes to the countries Southeast Asia considers its ally. China and ASEAN have been top trade partners with their trade volume being over nine hundred billion.
On the other hand, half of the people who responded did say that they had distrust towards Beijing and they were worried about China using economic or military power to threaten them.
The Philippines and Vietnam have been worried about China’s aggressive behavior in the South China Sea. The Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that they should not be looked at as provoking China with their current claims in the South China Sea.
President Marcos Jr. stated, “This is not poking the bear, as it were. We are trying to do quite the opposite. We are trying to keep things at a manageable level, to continue the dialogue, whatever they are, at every level.”
Said the director and CEO at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Choi Shing Kwok, “This year’s survey results clearly reflect heightened regional concerns over economic issues and the risk that unrestrained geopolitical rivalry can adversely affect the region’s interests in the short to medium term.”
Some respondents to the survey did say that the AESAN should build up resilience and unity to remove the pressure from China and the United States. The survey did say that the United States is supported more by those who are from the Philippines and Vietnam.
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